


Arrivals

by Narsil



Series: Ranma, the Naïve Succubus [2]
Category: Ranma 1/2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, F/F, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-26
Updated: 2012-12-26
Packaged: 2017-11-22 12:59:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/610091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narsil/pseuds/Narsil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ranma finally arrives at the Tendo dojo, so the young lovers live happily ever after, right? Well ... with a youngest sister getting attacked every morning at school, a purple-haired Amazon haunting their footsteps, and a certain Lost Boy showing up less than happy with his rival, not exactly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ranma's here!

_Ranma’s coming!_ The mantra once again echoed through Nabiki’s mind, and the earth-haired girl sighed as the answer to the math problem she’d been working on vanished like it had never been. It had been days since she’d ... fed ... Ranma, and the nature spirit and boy she’d come to like so much was just hours away — a day or two at most, if that waste of space she ... he ... called a father would just hurry up, and she couldn’t wait to meet that gorgeous hunk she’d seen in her dreams in person!

Nabiki sighed again, then frowned as she remembered Ranma’s brief visit the other day, when the busty — and deliciously naked — redhead had told her that her father was bringing the two of them to the Tendo dojo, ‘to visit an old friend’. _There’s something more going on than just a visit, I know it — that greedy, lying bastard could care less about any ‘old friend’, or he would have dropped by years ago. So why now? Maybe Ranma will be able to convince him to talk before it’s too late, whatever it is. As it is, we’ll probably have to step up my own plans._

She shook her head and decided that she was too distracted for school work. Pushing away from her desk, pulling her laptop out of its case and sitting on her bed, Nabiki booted it up, pulled up Genma’s police record, and reviewed it yet again with a sigh. _I suppose I should be glad he never did anything to_ really _hurt anyone, but considering the statute of limitations, with this list of petty thievery and con games he’d get a few months — less than two years at most if he got anything at all. Especially since most of those injured eventually decided not to press charges. I wonder why? Still, that’s not long enough to get Ranma completely out from under his legal authority._

Closing the police records folder, Nabiki opened up another file she’d started the day after Ranma’s feeding, her notes of her conversation with Cherry Blossom when the effervescent sprite had returned from her spying mission on one Nodoka Saotome. Her face relaxed from a scowl to a slightly lascivious, slightly embarrassed smile at the memory of the cute little winged and naked blonde hovering in front of her face and commenting on her sex life. _That bubbly airhead act_ has _to be a con job_ , Nabiki thought, remembering the scatterbrained manner of the report — Cherry Blossom’s delivery had been near-incoherent, jumping from one observation to another without any rhyme or reason Nabiki could figure out, but the observations has been spot-on, insightful, and thorough, _very_ thorough. And it had covered subjects that Nabiki couldn’t understand a sprite knowing at all — financial statements and business records, rankings in kendo and kenjutsu tournaments, the hints that Mrs. Saotome had some sort of sideline career that used up what little free time she had ... _it’s like Kasumi’s comment on Cherry Blossom’s cooking skills. Why would a sprite learn enough to understand all that? For that matter, I didn’t think the little airheads_ could _learn all that. There’s something really strange going on here._

Still, in the midst of the minutia and shadows of Cherry Blossom’s report there’d been two things Nabiki found very promising, and she read once more of the reports from private investigators searching for Genma Saotome and his son Ranma, going back almost eight years, and of the torn up seppuku contract in the little shrine Nodoka had created in honor of her son. Shutting down her laptop and putting it away, Nabiki flopped back on her bed and stared at the ceiling, again debating the pros and cons of contacting ‘Auntie’ Saotome, the way the contract had been torn up versus the fact that it existed at all. Finally, deciding again that she’d just have to wait and see what the future brought, Nabiki pulled out her latest manga and tried to distract herself from thoughts of the coming meeting.

/oOo\

Kasumi sighed and paused, pans in hand, as she gazed out the kitchen window for a long moment before resuming her preparations for that night’s dinner. _Ranma’s coming_ , she thought to herself, _and how am I supposed to handle this?_ The elder sister thought back to the other day, when Nabiki had told her of Ranma’s hunger pains, and how she’d taken care of them — and how she intended to _keep on_ taking care of them, as necessary. Nabiki had been half shame-faced, half resentfully rebellious at how she must have expected Kasumi to react, but Kasumi had simply thanked Nabiki for her honesty and walked away. Since then, she’d found herself needing to be extra-careful as thoughts of Ranma and Nabiki continually intruded on her daily routine.

_It wouldn’t be so bad if Ranma wasn’t actually coming here_ , she thought half-despairingly. _At least that way, even if Nabiki insists on not waiting for marriage as she should, there wouldn’t be any chance of pregnancy. But with Ranma’s boy-form available ... and with her preferences Nabiki_ will _want to try_ him _out as well, and without birth control it won’t be safe for a couple of weeks. And I_ know _she isn’t going to be willing to use birth control — that would mean actually buying it and she’ll be worried about what would happen if the wrong person found out about it._ Chuckling slightly to herself, Kasumi admitted, _Of course, I can’t buy it for her, either — oh, horrors, the rumors_ that _would start if the neighbors found out! Too bad there’s no way that_ Akane _would get it for her, any rumors_ that _would start are better than the ones beginning to circulate at school right now._

Coming to herself, Kasumi realized that she’d been staring out the window again, and with another sigh picked up a kitchen knife and turned to the melon on the counter.

/oOo\

A tall, dark-haired and mustached man stood in the doorway to his home, staring down at the battered postcard with a panda on the back that he held in his shaking hands. Again, he read the short note: _“Hi. Bringing Ranma from China. Saotome.”_ Tears started flowing from Soun Tendo’s eyes as he thought back to the days he and his fellow apprentice had suffered under the ‘tutelage’ of the perverted Master Happosai, and the agreement they had made to join their children and their schools when their plot against their master had actually worked. Over the years since Saotome had left on his son’s training trip, and as Soun’s students has fallen away because of his emotional outbursts after the death of his wife and money had gotten tighter and tighter, he had first worried and then despaired. But now the silence had finally been broken, Ranma was coming, and his daughters’ futures would be secure!

“Kasumi! Nabiki! Akane!” the tall martial artist shouted as he rushed into the house with the good news.

/oOo\

The pigtailed boy in the red Chinese-style shirt and black draw-string pants stared at his balding, bulky father in shock. “Engaged?” he asked again. “You _engaged_ me to one of the Tendo daughters _when_!?”

Genma chuckled nervously while trying to unobtrusively shift to block the alley exit. “Before you were born, when I and my fellow apprentice agreed to united our families’ schools. Ranma, just think of the new techniques there will be to learn!”

Ranma hesitated for a moment, then remembering Akane and unconscious boys scattered around a school yard, stared suspiciously at Genma. “And which of the girls will I be marrying? What do ya know about ‘em, anyway?”

Genma waved dismissively. “Any of them, it doesn’t matter — one woman is as good as another.” Then, as Ranma’s stare turned into a glare, he hastily continued, “Besides, I don’t really know anything about them. It’s been ten years since I’ve spoken to Soun.”

Ranma laughed bitterly and started to reply, when thunder rolled down from the clouds that had blown in suddenly and thick raindrops started spattering down around the pair. “Oh, that’s just great!” he managed to say, just before the shower turned into a downpour and a large panda found herself watching her son’s suddenly empty clothes drop to the alley floor.

/oOo\

“Fiancé?” Akane asked, staring at her father in disbelief.

“Yes, the son of a very good friend of mine....” Soun replied.

Nabiki shook her head where she knelt between her two sisters at the dining room table and tuned out the building argument as she listened to the sound of rain start coming through the wall windows behind her. _Not a good way to start, Dad,_ she thought, then flinched slightly as suddenly she found herself looking at the bountiful breasts of her favorite cute redhead, now floating above the middle of the table.

Ranma looked around quickly, then shifted out of the way as an oblivious Akane leaned over and shouted across the table at her father, “Wait a minute! Don’t _we_ have a say in who we marry!?”

Nabiki stood up, interrupting Soun’s response. “If there isn’t anything more important to discuss, I have business to take care of in my room.”

“But we haven’t discussed which of us will take the Saotome engagement,” Kasumi objected, and Ranma’s eyes widened.

“I’ll marry who I choose to marry, so what anyone else decides doesn’t really matter,” Nabiki said firmly as she walked toward the door. While Soun and Akane stared at Nabiki’s retreating back, Kasumi rolled her eyes and motioned to Ranma to follow her. Ranma looked puzzled for a moment, then nodded in dawning comprehension and floated up through the ceiling.

/\

Nabiki stalked into her room to find the nature spirit already waiting for her. Striding up to her, she stared at her pigtailed friend for a moment, then asked, “And how long have you known of the engagement?”

Ranma backed up a little, startled at Nabiki’s biting tone and the suspicion boiling off of her. “J-J-Just a few minutes,” she stuttered. “I finally got Pop ta tell me just before the rain started.”

Nabiki gazed at her for a few minutes as the sound of the argument, or at least Akane’s shouts, drifted up from downstairs. Finally, Nabiki’s gaze softened and she stepped forward and pulled the nervous cutie into a hug. “Sorry, Ranma, I shouldn’t have doubted you. Just letting my paranoia getting to me a little, I guess.”

Ranma hesitantly returned the hug as she sighed with relief.  The ugly feel of her friend’s emotions had faded away, replaced by the usual warm feeling she enjoyed so much. “That’s all right.”

The two luxuriated in being together again for a moment, then Ranma sighed and pushed away as new shouts erupted from below, only from Soun this time: “Kasumi, my naginata, hurry!”

“That’ll be the panda gettin’ here,” Ranma muttered, “might as well get this over with.” She promptly started sinking through the floor.

“Get _what_ over with?” Nabiki asked, but Ranma was already gone. _What could she be talking about? The only one down there that can see her is Kasumi, at least when she’s a nature spirit.... Oh, no, don’t tell me she’s headed for the furo!_

She rushed out of her room and down the hall to the stairs, and had just started down when Akane’s scream of “AHHH! Naked pervert!” reverberated from the family room, followed by a loud crashing sound. Nabiki shook her head ruefully and slowed to a walk. Coming to the family room doorway, she stepped past the large panda carrying some sopping wet clothes and a couple of backpacks and looked down at the black-haired, pigtailed, and very naked hunk she remembered from her dreams lying unconscious under the dining table while a panting, furious Akane stood over him and glared equally at the unconscious boy at her feet and the panda just inside the room’s entrance.

“What happened?” Nabiki asked, looking between Akane and the corner where her father was taking a naginata from his eldest daughter standing behind him.

“This panda just walked in!” Akane shouted. “And ... and then, this ... this naked _pervert_ just appeared out of nowhere right next to him!”

Nabiki stepped next to her younger sister and turned to look the panda over, then nodded at the backpacks. “Well, Dad, you did say your friend and his son had been to China, so” — looking up at the panda’s face — “Jusenkyo?”

The panda nodded, and Nabiki gave a sharp laugh and glanced at Akane. “I don’t know what kind of spring could turn a boy into a ghost, but congratulations, kiddo, you may have just knocked out your future husband!”

/oOo\

Nabiki sat next to the unconscious black-haired boy lying on a futon in the guest room, gazing thoughtfully out the window. _Well,_ that _could have gone better_ , she thought with a grimace, then felt her expression soften as she looked down at her newly-arrived friend. _Still, he’s here and that’s all that matters._

Her head jerked around at a soft knock on the door, her expression hardening, then she relaxed at the sound of her older sister’s voice. “Nabiki, is Ranma waking up yet?” Kasumi asked softly. “Can I come in?”

“Sure,” Nabiki responded, “and no, Ranma isn’t waking up yet.”

Kasumi quietly slipped inside and closed the door behind her, then tiptoed over to Ranma and stood gazing down at the unconscious boy. “He’s very handsome,” she whispered. “Is this how he looked in the dreams you shared?”

“Yeah, it is,” the brown-haired girl said with a dreamy smile. “I sure lucked out, didn’t I?”

“If the inside matches the outside, yes you did,” Kasumi responded, then reluctantly added, “And I have to admit, he does seem to be a nice boy.”

The dreamy look on Nabiki’s face vanished as she glared at her older sister. “All right, Kasumi, what do you have against Ranma? You hardly know him!” she growled.

Kasumi held up her hands palms out in a placating gesture. “Easy, Nabiki, easy! I don’t have anything against the boy, not really. It’s just that ... well ...” She fell silent for a long moment, then sighed. “Nabiki, do you intend to repeat your dreams, only in real life?”

“You mean, do I intend to take him to bed and screw his brains out?” Nabiki asked, glancing at her older sister and grinning at the blush that sprang to life on her cheeks.

“Well, in a word, yes,” Kasumi admitted.

“At the first opportunity. Why, got a problem with that?”

“Yes, little sis, I do — several, in fact,” Kasumi said firmly. “First, it just isn’t proper to do that outside of marriage — even with a fiancé.” She quickly waved down her sister’s gathering protest. “Still, as you have said so often and demonstrated again tonight, ‘proper’ is not something you care about, I know. Though you should at least pretend to care, to maintain the family’s reputation — that will be important if Father’s dream of reopening the dojo with Ranma as the sensei works out.”

Nabiki froze with her mouth open, then swallowed her rebuttal and gazed thoughtfully down at the handsome face she had before seen only in her dreams. “You may have a good point there, big sis,” she reluctantly admitted. “Ranma wants to teach someday, and his reputation will be important. And,” she added even more reluctantly, “my reputation will affect how he’s perceived. Damn it!”

Kasumi put her arm around her younger sister’s shoulders. “Now, Nabiki, I don’t expect you to act the perfect dutiful daughter, or sister, or fiancée or student as the case may be. Just please think about how your public actions will reflect on those closest to you?”

Nabiki nodded with a sigh. “It looks like you finally found an argument that works, big sis, I’ll try. Still,” she added with a grin, “that’s just in public. What happens in private doesn’t count!”

Kasumi chuckled ruefully, shaking her head. “That’s if it _stays_ private. But tell me, Nabiki, do you have any birth control?”

Nabiki stiffened, then with a groan dropped her head in her hands. “No, I don’t,” she murmured.

“And right now, you’re — what was that odd American phrase? — as fertile as a turtle. It won’t really be safe for a couple weeks, and I don’t know how Ranma would handle it if you got an abortion. And you don’t want to get one behind his back.”

“Yeah, a secret like that would not be good,” Nabiki agreed, lifting her head out of her hands and shaking it. “How did I miss that?” she asked bemusedly.

“You got bedazzled by a pretty face,” Kasumi said primly, sitting up ramrod straight. “Of course, such a thing could _never_ happen to _me_!”

“Dr. Tofu will be sorry to hear that,” Nabiki replied slyly, then laughed as Kasumi slapped her gently on the shoulder. “Ah, well,” she sighed, “I guess I’ll just have to convince Ranma to let me play with his nature spirit form. Not that that’s a hardship, she’s cute as can be like that, Jusenkyo sure worked out for us. Maybe now that I’m her fiancée she’ll loosen up a little there.”

Blushing, Kasumi gratefully latched onto the change of subject. “So you want the engagement?”

“Yeah, I do,” Nabiki said. “I thought of suggesting that you take it for a little while — I’m afraid that Genma will want to keep Ranma under his thumb, and I’ll probably scare him. Still, that lazy bastard can hardly run away now, not if he wants the lazy future I think he’s angling for, so he’ll just have to deal with me — and maybe his wife.” She smiled viciously, and Kasumi joined her as she thought of the report from Cherry Blossom.

“I hope I’m here to see that,” Kasumi agreed, and got up. “I’ll let the fathers know that we’ve agreed that you should take the engagement, and with a couple new members of the household I have some work to do getting everything set up before bedtime. Bring Ranma downstairs when he wakes up, I’ve set some supper aside for the two of you.”

Nabiki nodded distractedly, her gaze returning to Ranma’s face, and Kasumi sighed and shook her head ruefully as she headed for the door.

/\

On the roof over the guest room window, Xian Pu quietly moved back and to the other side of the roof, then roof-hopped away into the night. A few minutes later, she reached the park where she had stashed her pack and pulled it out, her hands automatically setting up her camp as her mind repeated the conversation she’d heard over and over.

_Not a mage, just a Jusenkyo curse, and what do I do now?_ she thought as she finally tried to relax on her blankets after her meager supper, gazing at the few stars coming out in the darkening sky and trying to fight off the despair threatening to overwhelm her. _It looks like I’m going to be stuck with that fat fool after all, unless I can find some other man able to defeat me in fair combat that the elders would accept as a replacement. Yeah, right,_ she snorted derisively. _I’m the champion of the tribe of the best warriors in the world. The fact that Genma was able to beat me was incredible enough, even if I was tired from winning the tournament — what are the chances that there’s another man around that could repeat that miracle?_

Unable to find her usual comfort in the darkening night sky with most of the stars washed out by Tokyo’s light pollution, Xian Pu turned on her side and rested her head on her hands. _Maybe it won’t be so bad. A couple of children to do my duty to the tribe, and maybe he’ll lose interest in me. And he’s overweight — if I’m_ really _lucky, he’ll eat himself to death or something._ Then, remembering the muscles under the fat that she’d pounded her fists against during their brief fight, she laughed bitterly to herself. _Not a chance. Face it girl, you’re fucked — and all too soon that will be more than a figure of speech._

Wishing desperately that she could be scooped up by her mother and have everything made right again like when she was little, Xian Pu curled up in her blankets and cried herself to sleep for the first time in six years, since the night of her mother’s death.

/\

Once the purple-haired girl had sunk into uneasy dreams, the imp that had followed her from the Tendo Dojo slipped away to report what little it had learned.


	2. Back to School

Nabiki groaned as the sounds drifting through her window disturbed her uneasy sleep. Rolling over, she pulled her pillow over her head and tried unsuccessfully to fall back into slumberland. Finally, as the sounds didn’t go away and finding that the pillow wasn’t enough to smother them, she propped herself up and glanced at her alarm clock, and grimaced. _Damn, I haven’t woken up this early since Ranma started sleeping over! But then, she didn’t last night, did she?_

Curiosity getting the better of her, she pulled herself out of bed and looked out the window for the source of the noise that had disturbed her sleep (such as it was). Finding nothing out of the ordinary on her side of the house, she stumbled out into the hallway and down to the guest room where Ranma and Genma had spent the night and peeked in — nobody. _That’s odd,_ she thought, and walked over to the window and glanced out, only to freeze at the sight of her fiancé and his father down in the yard beside the pool, in what looked like a life-and-death struggle for supremacy. _What brought that on?!_ she thought frantically as she whirled away from the window, then forced herself to stop. _And just what do you think you’re going to do, girl? Throw yourself into that kind of fight — get yourself hurt, maybe killed, maybe Ranma hurt or killed if you distract him? And no point in calling the cops, either — by the time they get here it’ll all be over, if they even come. They usually stay out of the martial artists’ way, anyway._ Slumping, she turned back to the window to watch the fight.

It had been a number of years since the pageboy-haired girl had seen a real bout between high-level martial artists, but Nabiki found old memories coming back and soon relaxed as she realized that the pair in the yard were sparring, not fighting for real. With that knowledge, she was able to stop worrying and watch the fight with a careful and soon very respectful eye — watching Ranma perform katas for hours on end was one thing, watching that training put to use something else entirely and Ranma was _good_.

Genma, however, was better — until he made the mistake of kicking his son into the koi pond. Nabiki laughed at the shriek that followed the splash, as the now cute, redheaded, busty Ranma that only she could see flew out of the pond and Genma suddenly found himself trying and failing to block the attacks of an invisible opponent. Pushing herself away from the window, Nabiki pulled a change of clothes out of Ranma’s backpack and headed for the door and down the corridor to the stairs. _I’d better fish his clothes out of the pond and get these to the furo for her,_ she thought with another chuckle. _Then we’ll see what Kasumi has for breakfast._

/\

Nabiki smiled triumphantly as she walked down the sidewalk beside her black-haired, pony-tailed sister as she thought back to her victories at breakfast. First, there was putting a stop to the food duel between Ranma and Genma by threatening to have her and Ranma eat in her room if Genma continued (the mortified look on Kasumi’s face had been priceless), and then overriding Genma’s objections to Ranma attending school (and the flash of fear she thought she’d seen cross the fat fool’s face when Ranma had sided with her had been more than priceless).

But then, the earth-haired girl’s triumphant smile slid away, to be replaced by a thoughtful frown. Perhaps she had pushed a little too hard; while she didn’t think Ranma would _choose_ to leave if Genma insisted, that didn’t mean Genma wouldn’t force the issue by trying to kidnap his son — or attack _her_. And unfortunately, Genma had had _one_ good point, he didn’t have the money to pay for Ranma’s schooling. _And from the way Kasumi winced when I said we’d pay for it, I doubt the household budget can stretch that far, either. My own savings could probably take care of it, but that would blow a hole in my plans for college. It looks like I’m going to have to contact ‘Auntie’ Nodoka, whether I want to or not, damn! Ah, well, worry about that later, when you can do something about it._

Determinedly forcing the worried thoughts away, Nabiki glanced to the side and up to the pigtailed boy in a red and black Chinese outfit walking along the top of the chain-link fence beside her. “And just what are you doing up there, instead of down here with your fiancée?” she asked with a smile.

Ranma glanced down and grinned. “Trainin’.”

“Training?” Akane asked from where she was walking beside her sister. “And how is walking on top of a fence training?”

“Balance, and when Pop is around, stayin’ alert,” Ranma said, then suddenly jumped straight up as his father shot through the space he’d just occupied, landing with a splash in the canal on the other side of the fence.

“Hah, too fast fer ya, old man! And you’re gettin’ noisy, too!” Ranma jeered at the panda crawling out of the water from where he’d landed on the fence, then shouted “Clear out!” to the two sisters as he leaped down to the sidewalk, Nabiki and Akane scattering to either side. The panda cleared the fence with a single leap, landing where the pigtailed boy had just been crouching, but Ranma was already cartwheeling away, easily landing on his feet and bracing for a countercharge. “Check this out!” he shouted gleefully, just before a splash of water caught him full in the face and his suddenly empty clothes dropped to the sidewalk.

“Well, _that_ was anticlimactic,” Akane said snidely, as she turned her attention from the clothes at the feet of the naked red-haired girl she couldn’t see and watched the panda take off at a run. Nabiki, too, watched in amazement as Genma leaped up onto a fence, then from the fence to the roof of the house belonging to the old, white-haired lady that had just turned her fiancé into her fiancée. “Wow,” she murmured, then grinned as she turned her attention to the cute girl floating above her pile of clothing.

“Yeah, ya better run, ya loser!” Ranma was shouting with a high-pitched shriek after her disappearing father, and as Nabiki bent down to pick up the clothes she murmured, “Ranma, you aren’t disguising your voice.”

“Oops!” Ranma muttered, abashed, and Nabiki sighed and straightened with the damp clothing clutched to her chest.

“Akane, why don’t you go ahead and deal with your admirers while I get Ranma some hot water?” she said.

Akane frowned — there was something about the whole situation nagging at her, and it had just gotten worse.  “Are you sure?” she asked.

“Of course,” Nabiki replied with a laugh. “I doubt my virtue’s in danger from a ghost, unfortunately. Still, there’ll be future opportunities,” she finished with a leer, and Akane flushed as a memory of an afternoon several days ago surfaced....

Determinedly, she shoved the memory back and nodded. “All right, see you at school,” she said, and headed down the sidewalk at a trot.

/\

As Ranma floated alongside her fiancée, she examined the other girl and frowned. Looking around and not seeing anyone within earshot, she asked, “Nabiki, ya feelin’ all right? Ya don’t look so good.”

Nabiki smiled tiredly. “And how do I feel?” she asked back.

The red-haired girl struggled for words, finally saying, “Kinda, well, dull, I guess. Like yer not as alive as normal.”

“That’s a fair way to put it,” Nabiki agreed with a chuckle. “I’m just tired, Ranma, I didn’t sleep well last night and got up too early.”

“Is something wrong?” Ranma asked, concerned, but the older girl just shook her head and grinned.

“No, just missed snuggling with my favorite redhead, that’s all, but thanks for caring. And the morning show you and your father put on in the yard was nice, too — especially where you ended up in the pond,” she added with a hint of a leer, giving the naked girl beside her a thorough looking over and chuckling at Ranma’s blush. _The intensity of her blushes is falling off, good,_ Nabiki thought to herself, then nodded at the building just ahead with signs out front advertising acupressure, acupuncture, and moxibustion services. “And there’s where we can get some hot water for you.”

“A kanpo?” Ranma asked as her blush faded, and Nabiki nodded.

“Yes, Dr. Ono Tofu. He’s been taking care of Akane’s injuries for most of her life.” Then, approaching the door, she said, “Now be quiet while I get the water.”

Ranma fell back slightly as Nabiki stepped inside and talked to the elderly woman that apparently helped out the doctor, and looked around. There was something wrong — something right on the edge of her awareness, like she should be seeing something that wasn’t there. But however hard she looked, through the building walls and the fence around it, there was nothing to see — just Nabiki, the doctor’s helper, and a few patients sitting in the waiting room .the last, she did her best to ignore, naked elderly people wasn’t high on her list of favorite things — there were times she didn’t care for how much trouble she had seeing dead things. Finally, seeing Nabiki approaching with a kettle of hot water, Ranma shrugged and drifted over to rejoin her friend.

Nabiki led the busty nature spirit around the building behind the fence surrounding the building, out of sight, then suddenly turned and splashed the water on Ranma.

“Ow! Hot! Hey, why’d ya do that?!” he demanded, dropping lightly to the ground, and she chuckled, giving his muscular nude form an appreciative once over.

“So you wouldn’t have time to get bashful on me like you did in the furo this morning,” she said as she handed him his clothes. “I don’t know why you’re being uptight about me seeing you naked as a guy — after all, not only did I get a good look at you last night, in those first few dreams I did a lot more than look!” Seeing Ranma’s blush covering him from chest to hairline for a moment before his shirt covered most of the view, Nabiki chuckled again and turned him around to head back to the corner to the street. “Come on, let’s get to school.”

Ranma nodded a little sulkily and walked ahead alongside the fence, turned the corner and found himself face to face with a skull. With a shriek, he leaped back and up to the top of the cement pillar at the fence’s corner, taking a defensive stance, only to relax at the sight of his fiancée doubled over with laughter and a young man holding a skeleton looking up at him, nonplussed.

“D-Dr. Tofu, that was great!” Nabiki gasped out, and the young man shook himself and smiled up at Ranma.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “I didn’t mean to startle you that badly.”

“That’s all right, doc,” Ranma replied, dropping down from his perch. The two exchanged bows, and after Nabiki was able to get her laughter under control and told the doctor that Akane hadn’t been by lately because she’d actually been able to avoid any injuries needing his attention, the two said their goodbyes and headed off toward the school.

“He’s like you, isn’t he?” Ranma asked when they were alone again.

“Like me?”

“A summoner, a — what was that word ya used, an Awakened?” Ranma clarified, and Nabiki nodded, frowning thoughtfully.

“I don’t know if he actually summons anything, but yes, he is an Awakened, though not as powerful as I am. How did you know?” she asked.

“ ‘Cause he was able ta sneak up on me,” Ranma explained. “Before ya threw the water on me I’d taken a good look around and didn’t see him anywhere, but when I turned the corner, there he was! And I looked around so carefully ‘cause it felt like somethin’ wasn’t right — like I was missing somethin’. Turns out I was, him. Somehow, he was keepin’ me from seeing him.”

“I see,” Nabiki murmured. “Interesting, I didn’t know that was possible. I’m going to have to have a talk with the good doctor, see if he’ll teach me how to do that.” Then she sighed as the gates leading to the school grounds came into view and the sound of combat became audible. “Looks like little sis is finishing off Kuno, we aren’t late. Let’s get to class.”

/oOo\

Kuno lay groaning facedown on the concrete walkway around the outside of Furinkan High School, face toward the feet of a cracked man-shaped outline in the school’s brick wall, as joy filled his heart. _My wondrous love left me conscious this day, her blows have lightened! Surely the glorious Akane Tendo is coming to realize her true feelings for the only man worthy of her!_

“So, sis, enjoy your morning workout?” came the voice of the unnatural creature in female shape that his love was forced to claim as a sister.

“Same old, same old,” came the clear ringing voice of the sun in his sky, “what a drag.”

“Hey, at least you’re gettin’ plenty a’ practice at crowd fightin’,” an unfamiliar male voice said. “There ain’t a dojo in all a’ Japan that would give ya the same trainin’.” A male voice? Kuno slowly flopped over so that he could look toward the speakers, to see that demoness in human flesh approach his shining epitome of womanhood with a strange raven-haired boy in red and black Chinese shirt and pants at her side. Enraged that any boy would dare to so cavalierly approach _his_ chosen woman, Kuno struggled to rise to his feet only to find Akane’s response fading into incomprehensibility as the world around him darkened and he finally faded out.

When next the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High was aware of his surroundings, he found himself staring at the all-too-familiar ceiling of the school nurse’s office. Staggering to his feet and ignoring the usual _pro forma_ protestation of the nurse, the tall kendoist took off his robes to reveal a Furinkan boy’s school uniform, packed the robes in his school bag, and slowly made his way to his classroom to sit in his most unfortunately assigned seat.

“Well, Kuno, did you enjoy your usual morning workout?” the pageboy-styled archfiend sitting at the desk to his right asked.

“I detest you,” Kuno ground out.

“I’m _so_ glad,” Nabiki replied with a smirk.

“So, who was that mannerless peasant with you?” Kuno asked as he squirmed, trying to find an unbruised part of his back to rest against the back of his seat.

To Kuno’s amazement, the Ice Queen’s smirk seemed to soften a bit around the edges and her eyes went slightly unfocused. “Oh, he’s Ranma, my fiancé,” she replied almost dreamily. “Our fathers made an agreement while we were children to unite the schools by marrying his son to one of father’s daughters, and Ranma and I agreed to fulfill it. He and his father are living at the dojo, now.”

Kuno simply stared. Could it be true? Could the ice sculpture in human shape truly be warming to another human being? No surely this was an act, a trick for some unknown reason! Then the last of Nabiki’s statement registered, and all was clear. Without thought, Kuno found himself on his feet, reaching for the robes in his school bag under his seat and the bokken slung around the backrest. “No,” he shouted furiously, “you lie! You and that unlettered cur have conspired to pretend to be fiancés while he courts the fair Akane! What man, given a choice, would choose you over such a marvelous example of womanhood?!”

At the head of the class, the teacher leaned on his arms, shaking his head. “Kuno, buckets, hallway, now!” he called out, and Kuno quickly finished dressing in his robes, slung the bokken over his back, grabbed the buckets full of water, and _ran_ for the door.

Nabiki stared as he disappeared out the door. _Oookay, that was more bizarre than usual_ , she thought, then suddenly realized that the sound of footsteps hadn’t stopped when he’d exited — that Kuno had continued down the hall toward Akane’s class! _Oh, that’s just great!_ she thought with a groan, and rose. “Sensei, Kuno headed toward my sister and fiancé’s classroom. May I leave and make sure he doesn’t do something _too_ spectacularly stupid?” she asked the current teacher.

The teacher sighed and nodded. “Of course, Nabiki, you are excused. Please return as soon as possible.”

“Thank you, sensei,” she politely replied, walked out of the classroom, and as soon as she was out of sight of her classmates broke into a run.

/\

Ranma jerked his head upright and sighed. _I know I promised Nabiki I’d take school seriously, but is this ever boring!_ he groused to himself. Glancing at Akane in the seat next to him, the pigtailed boy leaned over slightly. “So ya fight that nutcase every morning?” he whispered.

“Yes, I do, and I always win. Now be quiet, I’m trying to listen!” Akane hissed back, and Ranma turned his attention back to the teacher pontificating on the Warring States period, struggling to stay awake and wishing that something would happen to rescue him from his boredom.

His wish was granted.

Suddenly, the classroom door slammed open, and Ranma threw himself out of his seat as a bucketful of water passed through the space he had just abandoned and drenched Akane, plastering her blouse to her chest (much to the delight of the boys in the class). “Villain! How dare you dishonorably seek to disguise your pursuit of the fair Akane with a false engagement!” the robe-clad upperclassman shouted as he dropped the now-empty bucket and drew his bokken from over his shoulder, so angry at his supposed rival that he didn’t even notice who he’d actually hit with the water.

“Hey, watch it, you’re gonna hurt somebody!” Ranma shouted as he rolled away from Kuno’s first strike, and the bokken’s downward stroke split another student’s desk in half. The pigtailed boy sprang to his feet, then dropped to a crouch and the windows behind him shattered from the air pressure alone of Kuno’s follow-up cross-swing.

Ranma glanced around at his fellow students, most wise enough to take cover crouching behind their desks or lying on the floor, and grimaced. _Smart kids, but it ain’t gonna be enough. I’ve gotta get this outa the classroom_. Focusing back on the kendoist, Ranma leaped over the downward thrust that punched a hole through the floor, ran up the back of the bokken, flipped over Kuno’s shoulder and dove for the classroom door, knocking a breathless Nabiki just running up to the door on her ass in the process.

“Sorry, Nabs!” Ranma yelled as he took off down the hall, Kuno leaping over Nabiki in pursuit. At the sound of running footsteps behind her, the middle Tendo glanced back into the classroom and hastily rolled out of the way as the rest of the class thundered after the racing duo, a soaked Akane in the lead. Nabiki quickly regained her feet and ran after the mob.

Ranma glanced back over his shoulder as he ran, then ducked and rolled as a gasping Kuno swung his bokken, slicing into the wall beside them.  Surprised shouts came from the students in the classroom on the other side of the wall suddenly showered with shards of brick and rock dust. _This isn’t workin’!_ Ranma thought, then grinned at the sight of an open window ahead of the racing pair. “Let’s take this outside, follow me!” Ranma shouted, looking over his shoulder as he threw himself through the open window.

“Fear not!” Kuno yelled as he unthinkingly followed the pigtailed boy.

“It’s the third floor!” a student shouted as the windows filled with gawking teenagers and a suddenly wide-eyed Kuno in free-fall stared down.

“No sweat, I’m —” Ranma got out before looking down at the rapidly approaching pool. _Oh, that’s just great!_ he thought just before he splashed down. Right above the sudden redhead, the Blue Thunder smashed down onto the surface of the pool and the clothes the now naked nature spirit had left behind.

Ranma looked around at the sides of the pool under the surface. _Odd,_ she thought, _I’m underwater but I’m breathing just fine._ She glanced up to find an unconscious upperclassman floating facedown a foot over her head, and sighed. _Guess I better do something ‘bout that,_ she thought, _I hope this works._ Flying up, she braced her back against Kuno’s chest and pushed upward, lifting the kendoist until his face rose from the surface of the pool, his legs and arms hanging down on either side of his rescuer. Then, just as they were approaching the edge of the pool, the ‘Blue Thunder’ woke up.

/\

Catching up to the back of the mass of students at the windows, Nabiki forced her way through the mob to the front just in time to wince on seeing her fiancé splash down into the pool, red hair flashing into existence just before Kuno smashed down right above her. _Oh, this is just wonderful!_ she thought in horrified awe. _How do we hide the curse now? What do we_ say _?!_

Then things just got worse as an obviously unconscious Kuno lifted out of the water and began to float toward the edge of the pool. Nabiki was able to see flashes of the smaller nature spirit under her burden, but the other students couldn’t.  Nabiki dropped her forehead onto her arms on the window sill as she listened to the confused questions on all sides.

Suddenly, a shout came from the pool below — “Saotome Ranma, I fight on!” — and Nabiki’s head shot up to see the kendoist’s arms circle around and grab onto the nature spirit beneath him. The earth-haired girl winced in sympathy as she realized just _what_ Kuno was grabbing at — sure enough, a shriek of feminine pain and outrage rose up, “Kuno, you pervert, that _hurts_!” and she watched as otherwise invisible hands rose to grab Kuno by both sides of his head and the redhead’s body whiplashed up to give impetus to the flipping throw that smashed the older teenager back first onto the tile around the pool.

Turning from the window, Nabiki put her back to the wall and slid down to sit on the floor, desperately holding in a giggling fit. _This is going to be one hell of a cover story,_ she thought half-despairingly, looking around at the confused students on all sides. _Ranma, you idiot, you still aren’t disguising your voice!_  She stood back up with a sigh, glanced out the window at the fuming redhead floating above the pool with her arms across her chest as Kuno shot up to a sitting position and shouted about Ranma not escaping him, then turned to the students around her and put on her best Ice Queen expression as she announced, “All right, the floor show’s over, time to get back to class!” Protests rose from all sides, but her best glare silenced them quickly enough, and the mass of students reluctantly began to head back to their classroom.

As she herded the students into class, Nabiki realized that her sense for the presence of other Awakened was screaming at her and groaned inside as she noticed the particularly stunned expressions on the faces of Gosunkugi and — Miyako? Miyoko? _That’s right, Akane has a couple of mid-ranged Awakened in her class, the cover story just got even better._ Sighing, she headed down to the pool to collect Ranma’s clothes for the third time that morning.

/\

On the roof of the school, a couple of imps were laughing so hard they couldn’t even stand, while in a tree on the school grounds in sight of the pool another imp was barely able to hold onto the branch it was lying across for its own laughter. Finally, on the roof Gorash sat up and wiped at its eyes. “And Mara thought this assignment would be boring!” it chortled, and its companion collapsed into laughter all over again, setting off Gorash in return.

As they calmed down a second time, Gorash looked over at the earth-haired girl fishing clothing out of the pool while studiously ignoring the cute red-haired nature spirit circling her with an abashed look on her face. “Well, that was probably the high point of the day, but at least we’ll have something for Mara tonight. I don’t know if it’s anything she’ll be able to actually _use_ , but from the way she’s looked lately she could use a good laugh and this should certainly do that!”

Then, on seeing the human Adept head back into the school with her spirit companion floating along beside her, the imps split up to cover the separate exits from the building.


	3. Welcome Home

The next morning, and Nabiki and Akane turned the corner toward the school gates, Nabiki with her arms full of damp clothing and Akane glancing around nervously, her eyes passing unseeing over the cute naked red-haired girl floating on the other side of her sister.

“I can’t believe that old lady got me _again_!” Ranma complained.

Nabiki grinned as she caught Akane’s flinch out of the corner of her eye.  “What’s wrong, sis, you’re not afraid of spirits, are you?” she jibed, and Akane growled.

“Of course not!” she insisted, turning and looking almost directly at the nature spirit she couldn’t see. “You just better stay out of the girls’ locker room!”

Ranma unconsciously shifted so that Akane would be looking at her if she could actually see her, as Nabiki smirked. “Why do you care? Ranko’s a girl, after all, just like you.” Ranma flinched, and Nabiki frowned slightly.

“Yeah,” Akane acknowledged, “and I feel sorry for her, being stuck with that pervert, but you said he remembers what she sees and I don’t want him remembering us girls changing!”

Nabiki sighed. “Look, Akane, Ranma might have startled you that first night, but he couldn’t help appearing in front of you naked. That was Ranko’s fault, and doesn’t make him a pervert.”

Akane hesitated, then scowled. “Maybe not, but it doesn’t matter — he’s a boy, and all boys are perverts! Speaking of which ...” she added as they approached the gates, and broke into a run, dashing through the gates at full speed shouting her mantra.

Nabiki sighed as shouts and the sound of combat immediately broke out. “Okay, now it’s official. Watching little Miss Perfect get attacked every morning has been fun, but now I’m getting worried.”

“Why?” Ranma asked as the two turned into the gates to see the Tendo sister with the long black hair plowing through the usual mob of would-be dates. “It’s not like any of ‘em can lay a hand on her.”

“True,” Nabiki agreed with a frown, “but it’s twisting her, making her hate boys. If she didn’t have such a crush on Dr. Tofu I’d be really worried about her future prospects, seeing how she hasn’t shown any attraction to girls. But still, if this keeps up one of these days little sis is going to lose control and really hurt someone.”

The busty nature spirit gazed out over the scattered clumps of groaning and unconscious boys, and nodded — bruises, abrasions, but no broken bones. “So ya just have ta think of a way ta get ‘em ta stop. Shouldn’t be that hard, as smart as ya are.”

“Thanks, Ranko, but I expect you to come up with your own ideas, too,” Nabiki said with a smile, then frowned as Ranma flinched again. “Okay, what’s wrong with the name? You came up with it yourself, and it’s too late to change it now!”

“Nothin’,” Ranma muttered. Then, under Nabiki’s stern gaze, reluctantly added, “I just don’t really like the story ya came up with.”

“I know,” Nabiki said, “but it’s the best we can do — Akane’s entire class heard your shout — your very _feminine_ shout — when Kuno grabbed onto you. And even if they hadn’t _he_ would certainly know that your spirit form is female — no way to hide those oh-so-luscious mounds he latched on to,” she added with a leer, then sobered when Ranma stiffened and crossed her arms across her generous chest. “Sorry,” Nabiki said contritely, and after a moment Ranma relaxed.

“Not yer fault,” she muttered. “I just don’t like rememberin’ that pervert grabbin’ my ... me ... there. And yeah, I know I don’t want anyone ta know I turn inta a girl, so we hafta go with havin’ me trade places with a girl instead—and yeah, that’s my fault. But couldn’t we have stuck with the ghost story? I don’t want anybody knowin’ I’m a nature spirit, either. What if they guess what kind?”

“No,” Nabiki said firmly, shaking her head. “Two of Akane’s classmates are Awakened, and from their shocked faces yesterday they’re powerful enough to actually see you. They’ll know you aren’t a ghost the first time you get close to them in spirit form. Ghosts ... _feel_ different.”

“If ya say so,” Ranma said with a sigh, then turned her attention back to the fight and frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Nabiki asked. Nothing seemed out of place to her — the usual gang brawl was over, and Kuno had made his usual flowery oration and was currently getting his ass handed to him, like always — although the ‘Blue Thunder’ label was new to her.

“He’s holdin’ back,” Ranma muttered.

Nabiki froze. “He’s _what_!?”

“He’s holdin’ back, lettin’ her win,” Ranma said more loudly, and Nabiki shook her head.

“I’ll take your word for it, but why?” she asked as Kuno slammed into a tree and slumped unconscious to the ground.

“I dunno, but he is!” Ranma insisted.

“I believe you, it’s just ...” Nabiki’s voice trailed off as she stared at the unconscious kendoist for a moment, then shrugged. “We’ll deal with that later, let’s get you some hot water and get to class.” Sighing, she added, “We’ll both be getting a lot of questions today.”

/\

Nabiki sat under her usual tree and opened her lunch bento, then smiled as her black-haired fiancé sat beside her. “I hope your morning has been better than mine,” she said.

Ranma shook his head with a scowl.  “I kinda doubt it,” he said. “Ya wouldn’t _believe_ some a’ the questions the guys have come up with. It’s makin’ me think yer sister could be right about boys.”

Nabiki winced. “And she was right there to hear every question, of course, just great. Okay, your morning was worse than mine. At least my reputation is useful on occasion, Kuno was the only one brave enough to ask about what happened yesterday, so after I recited our cover story all I had to put up with was his ranting about ‘the evil sorcerer enslaving a fair bud of a maiden’ and undoubtedly using her to ‘satisfy his bestial lusts’ while ‘pursuing the glorious Akane’ — with my help, of course, out of jealousy and envy.”

Ranma growled and started to stand up, looking around for the tall upperclassman, but stopped when his fiancée shook her head and pointed back down beside her. “Sit!” she loudly demanded, and Ranma dropped back down beside her, then flushed as a group of girls sitting close enough to hear Nabiki’s shouted order laughed. Nabiki frowned at the girls, and the laughter choked off.  The girls suddenly decided to eat their lunches elsewhere and got up and left.

“Look. Ranma,” Nabiki said, “you can’t go after Kuno for every little thing he says — he’s such an obvious nutcase that nobody believes him, and beating on him won’t change anything, he’ll just wake up and spout some more nonsense. So just ignore him unless he attacks you, right?”

She glared sternly at the pigtailed boy until he reluctantly nodded, then her expression softened and she grinned. “Yes, I know, you want to beat your chest and prove who’s toughest. But some problems can’t be solved with your fists, and this is one of them.”

“So, how _do_ we solve it?” Ranma asked.

Nabiki grimaced.  “I’m still working on that part,” she admitted reluctantly, and Ranma chuckled.  Hastily changing the subject, she asked, “You haven’t forgotten that we have a trip to make after school?”

“Naw, ‘course not,” the martial artist replied. “Where we goin’, anyway?”

“Just to see someone about paying for your schooling,” Nabiki said nonchalantly. _And I sure hope the fact that the sepukku contract is torn up is more important than that it exists._

/\

Gosunkugi stared thoughtfully at the pair from where he sat across the lawn, ignored by the rest of the students as usual. Ranma’s questioning by the boys (and a few of the girls) at the beginning of school and between classes before the teachers demanded the students’ attention had been interesting, to say the least. The budding Adept had been reluctantly impressed by Ranma’s self control — he had actually managed to keep himself from attacking any of those idiots. He’d even talked Akane into _not_ letting go of the fool she’d hung out the window — unfortunate, that, but maybe it showed a weak streak Gosunkugi could take advantage of instead of just a practical one.

Still, there was something about the whole situation that was off, something wrong—and then the pasty-skinned boy had it. Ranko had been around well before Ranma, from what he’d overheard Akane telling her friends, Ranma and his father had only shown up at the dojo two nights ago! So how had Ranko ended up with Nabiki at least a week back? And if Ranma had been in China while Ranko was in Nerima, how had they gotten linked? And they _were_ linked, Gosunkigi had managed to be in the first row at the windows when Ranma took his plunge into the pool, there was no mistaking what had happened yesterday....

Coming to a sudden decision, Gosunkugi quickly finished his lunch and headed back into the school. As much as he enjoyed school, there was no way he was going to be able to concentrate on the lessons, so taking an afternoon off for research in the family library was in order — he was easily a good enough student, and normally unhealthy-looking, that the teacher would believe a sudden illness. Ranma hadn’t mentioned any place names in his little story, but there couldn’t be _that_ many cursed springs in China....

/oOo\

Ranma frowned grumpily from where she floated alongside Nabiki as her fiancée walked through the park in the failing light of evening toward the line of houses across the street. Glancing around to make sure there wasn’t anyone in earshot, she complained, “I can’t believe that water fountain broke just as we were passing by! What is it with me and water, anyway?”

“I’d say we’re seeing another aspect of your curse,” Nabiki said sympathetically (hiding an appreciative smile even as Ranma lightly blushed from the mild lust radiating from her fiancée). “It must _want_ you to change if you stay in your uncursed form long enough — or perhaps it’s both forms and there’s simply more cool water around than warm.”

“That’s just great,” the cute red-haired nature spirit grumbled, and Nabiki just shook her head — Ranma’s reaction seemed a little forced.

“You sure you aren’t just trying to distract yourself from meeting your mother?” she asked gently.

Ranma sobered. “Well, maybe,” she said. “What if she doesn’t take me turnin’ inta a spirit so well? I mean, I haven’t had the best a’ luck with Pop over the years, why should she be any better? And why are we tellin’ her the truth instead a’ the cover story, anyway?”

“Because it’s a bad idea to lie about something this important to someone important to you, it can lead to hurt feelings down the road when the secret comes out — and it _will_ come out sooner or later, I know that better than most. I’ve made a lot of money from that fact over the past year or so, after all.”

Ranma grimaced, then flinched at Nabiki’s spike of unhappiness at her reaction. Hastily, Ranma said, “But we didn’t tell Pop, or yer dad, either.” Then Ranma gasped as a wave of intense, though somehow old and worn-feeling, anger and pain from Nabiki rolled over her.

Nabiki stopped and sat on a bench beside the walkway, Ranma floating down beside her. “I don’t have a father,” she whispered, “not really. There’s just a legally adult permanent guest in the house that _used_ to be Dad before he died along with Mom.”

Ranma fidgeted at Nabiki’s side for a moment, then awkwardly hugged the taller girl. “I’m sorry,” she whispered as a couple of tears rolled down her face, and Nabiki patted the arms wrapped around her and sniffled, then straightened and took a deep breath.

“It’s all right, Ranma, just old news,” Nabiki lied, then hastily continued. “Anyway, Genma can’t be trusted with a single yen, and my father is too impulsive and emotional to be trusted with anything important, but your mother’s different. _She_ has a rock solid reputation for honor as well as skill in two worlds where honor is important — business and the kendo tournament circuit. She can probably be trusted, and if you want to avoid hurt feelings later you’ll lay everything out first, before she finds out on her own later.” At Ranma’s doubtful look, Nabiki added, “Trust, me, when it comes to secrets I’m an expert.”

With a reluctant nod and a worried look, Ranma floated up from beside Nabiki. “I guess yer right, so let’s get this over with.”

/\

The tall, auburn-haired middle-aged woman sitting at the kitchen table glanced at the clock on the wall for the third time in five minutes, the tenth time in twenty minutes, the thirtieth time that hour ... _Stop that!_ Nodoka told herself yet again. _Tendo-san will get here when she gets here, and not before, and she isn’t late yet. And you don’t want to get your hopes up after all these years — after all, just what do you think a high school girl is going to be able to tell you that your private investigators couldn’t? Still, after her telephone call yesterday it’s a good thing you didn’t go to work today, you might have given away the store!_

But yet again, she found her eyes drifting to the wall clock, and sighed in exasperation. Rising and walking to the stove, she had just picked up the tea kettle on the burner and started to pour when she heard a knock on the door and her hand jerked, spilling hot water along the counter. She ignored the spilled water and put the kettle back on the burner before rushing to the front entrance.  She threw open the door to find on her doorstep an attractive pageboy-styled earth-haired girl carrying some damp clothes of slightly above average height that radiated the power of a high-level Awakened and ... a smaller, cute red-haired nature spirit floating at her side!? And the nature spirit looked so familiar, where had she seen her before?

Nodoka stood there, frozen in surprise, and after a few moments the earth-haired girl bowed and said, “Saotome-san? I’m Tendo Nabiki, I called yesterday with information about your son?”

Nodoka shook herself out of her shock and returned Nabiki’s bow, ignoring the sudden weight of disappointment threatening to crush her. _So it was just an excuse to meet me about my side job without revealing anything to the neighbors._ “Yes, I am Mrs. Saotome. My apologies for my rudeness, I was surprised. Please, come in.” She led her two guests to the parlor and excused herself to fetch the tea. As she poured, she said with a smile and a bow to the cute redhead, “My apologies that I can’t provide a snack of whatever you feed from for you.”

To Nodoka’s fresh surprise Nabiki choked and jerked, spilling the tea cup she had just lifted to her lips, and began to laugh as the nature spirit blushed and immediately covered her breasts and crotch with arm and hand. “You can see me!?” the spirit shrilled, and the other girl’s laughter intensified.

“Ranko, I swear, you have a reflex stuck in your brain somewhere, you always say and do the exact same thing whenever you run into someone else that can see you!” Nabiki managed to choke out.

Ranko’s blush actually deepened and she studied the floor, mumbling, “Well, yeah, it’s just always a shock, an’ bein’ naked all the time doesn’t help.”

A now thoroughly confused Nodoka glanced back and forth between her two guests, as hope once again sprang to life in her heart. “You mean you weren’t aware that I’m a ... that is, that I can see the supernatural? You really did come with news of my son?”

“Yes, we did, I didn’t realized you were an Initiate until I sensed your wards,” Nabiki replied, then glanced down at the tea spilled across the table. “Sorry about the mess.”

“Think nothing of it,” the older woman responded distractedly as she rose to fetch a towel. Once the spill had been wiped up, she again sat before her two guests and for once eschewed polite small-talk. “What can you tell me of my son?” she asked eagerly, and the two teenagers (or at least one teenager, no telling how old the nature spirit was) exchanged glances.

“Ranma and Genma are now living at the Tendo dojo,” Nabiki started, hesitated, then sighed. “Saotome-san, Genma has made your son an outstanding martial artist, but ...” Her voice trailed off, and Nodoka stiffened.

“I have had private investigators tracking Genma and my son for years, up until they left for China, so I know all about my former husband’s ... activities — the petty thievery, the con games, the multiple fiancées,” she ground out, then also hesitated. Finally, she screwed up her courage to ask, “My son ... didn’t turn out like Genma, did he?”

“No!” the nature spirit shouted. “I didn’t ... I mean _he_ didn’t ... I mean ...”

Nabiki laughed again, shaking her head at her companion. “Oh, that was very smooth!” Then, as her companion (still shielding her chest and groin, oddly enough) once again blushed, Nabiki turned back to Nodoka. “Saotome-san, your son is as fine a person as I’ve known” — neglecting to add that that didn’t mean much — “and I’m proud to have him for a fiancé. But ... your wards against demonic entry are strong, do you know much about the supernatural world?”

“A bit,” Nodoka admitted cautiously, “Why?”

Nabiki chuckled and nodded to the still-blushing redhead. “Saotome-san, may I present your son, Saotome Ranma?”

/\

A short explanation and long hug later, and a still somewhat stunned Nodoka stared at the currently nonhuman daughter she was holding by the shoulders at arm’s length, tears streaming unnoticed down her cheeks. “So _that’s_ why I thought I recognized you when I first saw you at the door,” she mused. “You look just like I did when I was your age.”

“Ya believe us? Just like that?” Ranma asked, reeling from the tsunami of love, grief, happiness, anger, and more thundering into her from her mother.

Nodoka nodded. “Yes, I met a Jusenkyo-cursed Hunter, once. He’d turned his curse into quite an advantage when it came to scouting — people don’t really notice songbirds flying around.”

Nabiki stilled. _Hunter? Later, we have other things to discuss._ “Saotome-san,” she said, “earlier did you describe Genma as your former husband?”

“Yes,” Nodoka agreed. “A few years after he stopped visiting during the training trip like he was supposed to, after the police and lawyers and families Genma scammed started showing up looking for him, I got a divorce for abandonment.”

“Wait, we were supposed ta visit?” Ranma demanded.

Nodoka nodded again.  “Yes, and you did — three times, the last about a year after the training journey started.”

Ranma frowned thoughtfully.  “Huh, that was around the time a’ the Cat Fist trainin’, I wonder if that had anything ta do with it?” she mused aloud, staring off into space.

“The what?” the other two asked, and Ranma jerked and looked at them, then chuckled nervously and tugged at her braid.

“The Cat Fist trainin’. It’s a martial arts technique,” she mumbled.

Glaring at her fiancé, Nabiki asked, “And just what does this technique consist of?”

“W-Well, ya dig a pit and fill it with c-c-ca-ca-little furry demons, don’t feed ‘em fer a few days, then tie fish sausages on the kid you’re trainin’ and toss him in, an’ repeat until it works,” Ranma explained.

The two suddenly pale women just stared at her for a long moment. “You mean cats?” Nabiki asked.

Ranma shuddered and nodded.

“And Genma really did this to you?” Nabiki asked, and at Ranma’s second nod turned to Nodoka. “Where’s your bathroom?” she asked, and on being told by a barely coherent Nodoka bolted from the room.

Ranma and Nodoka stared after her until the sound of retching echoed down the hall, then Nodoka rose and also left, to return with a katana strapped to her back just as Nabiki also reappeared in the doorway. “We’re going to go have a long talk with a child-abusing bastard that tried to kill my child, right now!” Nodoka growled out as Ranma shuddered from the anger and hatred hammering her.

Nabiki glanced at the white-faced, shaking nature spirit floating back away from her mother, sighed, and walked over to put a comforting arm around her fiancé’s waist. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think that’s a good idea right now,” she said softly. “You’ll kill him, and for some reason that escapes me completely Ranma still cares for that monster.”

“H-H-He’s a waste a’ space, b-but he’s my p-p-pop,” Ranma stuttered in a barely audible voice.

Nodoka looked at her child and froze.  “You’re an empath in this form, aren’t you?” she asked.

 “I-If ya mean I can feel what other people feel, yeah, that’s what Nabs called it,” Ranma said with a jerky nod.

Nodoka closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and held herself still, and after a long moment Ranma relaxed as the emotional storm subsided. Nodoka opened her eyes again, and walked over to hug the two teenagers. “I’m so sorry to inflict that on you, child,” she whispered.

Ranma wordlessly hugged her back, basking in the love now radiating from her mother.

Finally, Nodoka reluctantly stepped back and sighed, stamping firmly on the anger that still burned at her core. “I suppose I will simply have to wait until I can control myself to tell him just what I think of what he’s done,” she said reluctantly.

Nabiki grinned. “Actually, there _is_ something you might be able to do to frustrate Genma right now, even if you don’t see him,” she said. “You see, Genma’s opposed to Ranma attending school and refusing to pay for it, even if he could, and ...”

/oOo\

On a tree-covered hill out of sight from the walkways of the now dark park, Nabiki, her blouse unbuttoned and bra unclasped, moaned softly as Ranma, still in her nature spirit form, suckled at one of her pert breasts, one hand massaging the other breast and the other hand down between Nabiki’s spread legs. Nabiki’s skirt and panties were no impediment to the redhead’s questing fingers, and Nabiki gasped as she shook. “It’s a good thing I started wearing heavy duty pads,” she murmured, then reluctantly pulled her fiancé’s hand away from her crotch through her clothes and then pulled Ranma away from her breast and up into a searing kiss that left Ranma gasping from the equal measures of the warmth she now recognized as love piled on top of the pleasure and lust her attentions had caused Nabiki to radiate and fill Ranma’s core.

“As much as I’m enjoying giving you a little snack,” Nabiki said as she reclasped her bra and buttoned up her blouse, “we need to get back — Kasumi knows we’re going to be late, and that I’m not in any real danger wandering around in the dark as long as you’re with me, but she’s going to worry anyway.”

Ranma pouted but nodded, then surprised Nabiki with an only mildly self-conscious leer. “Well, if I can’t touch I c-can always l-look,” Ranma got out.

Nabiki laughed and struck a pose that had Ranma blushing furiously. Relaxing and grabbing Ranma’s hand, Nabiki carefully scanned around as the two started back for the dojo and nodded slightly as she sensed the same imp she’d noticed following her around days earlier. _I thought it’d pick us up again after we left Saotome-san’s wards. But it’s out of earshot, good._ “So, Ranma, now that you’ve met your mother, what do you think of her?” she asked nonchalantly, and smiled at the happiness she felt radiating from her lover floating beside her, then froze in place.

Ranma jerked as Nabiki’s shock hit her.  “Nabiki, what’s wrong?” she demanded, looking all around for anything threatening coming at them, then relaxed as Nabiki’s shock faded and transmuted into bemused joy.

“Nothing’s wrong, Ranma, just a very pleasant surprise,” Nabiki said, then felt back and sensed the imp creeping closer. “I’ll tell you about it when we get to the dojo. You want to spend the night with me?” Nabiki felt Ranma’s happy acceptance like sunlight on bare skin even as she heard Ranma’s eager agreement and her smile stretched so wide it felt like her face would split.  She was an empath, too! _I can_ definitely _get used to this,_ she thought, but simply said, “Good, that means tonight I get a good night’s sleep.”


	4. Ranma-sensei

“Good, I’ll be by to pick them up tonight. You said you’d be home by seven?” Nabiki said into her cell phone. “Thanks so much, Auntie Nodoka, I’m sure the books will be a big help in figuring out more about what Ranko is ... Right, just Nodoka, I guess ‘Auntie’ isn’t quite appropriate any more ... Yes, Ranma and I will be by Saturday morning, say around ten? ... Great, see you tonight, and thanks again.”

She closed up the phone and put it in her bag with a happy smile, in spite of her splitting headache — the visit with Ranma’s mother last night had been even more fruitful than she’d hoped. Then, when a spike of pain hit her with Ranma’s shouted greeting, she sighed and rubbed her head as Ranma sat down next to her under the tree and handed her a bento. “Here ya go,” the ponytailed boy said, then looked closer at his fiancée’s pinched expression. “Somethin’ wrong?” he asked concernedly.

“No, not really,” Nabiki replied even as she felt herself relaxing and the pain beginning to fade under the soothing caress of Ranma’s love and concern. “I’m just learning that there’s a downside to being an empath when nobody likes you much. Don’t worry, now that you’re here the headache’s already fading.” Then she frowned at Ranma’s spike of fear and regret at her words. “Okay, Ranma, it’s my turn to ask what’s wrong — you don’t regret me becoming an empath, do you?”

“No!” Ranma quickly insisted. “It’s just — what if you’re becoming like me? Ranko, I mean,” he hastily corrected, glancing around to make sure nobody could hear him.

“Don’t worry, I’d know if anyone was close enough to listen. And for me becoming a succubus, not likely,” Nabiki replied. “I’ll know more soon, but I suspect that isn’t how succubae reproduce. Speaking of Ranko, you weren’t in my dreams last night, but you were still next to me when I woke up this morning. Did you spend the entire night awake?”

“Nah,” Ranma said, “I was there. I just ... kept myself out a’ the picture — watched from the side.”

Nabiki raised an eyebrow at that. “Hmm, that’s new. Did you choose to do that, or did it just happen?”

“I chose to stay out,” Ranma said.

“Good, your control is getting better,” Nabiki said with a smile.

“Yup,” Ranma replied with a satisfied smile, then leaned back against the tree and stiffly put an arm around Nabiki’s shoulder only to relax when she leaned into him.

“Why so stiff?” Nabiki asked, her head against his shoulder.

Ranma grimaced. “I ... I wasn’t sure you’d want me to — in front a’ everybody, I mean. I miss not bein’ able ta feel people’s emotions when I’m human,” he admitted. “It’s like losin’ yer eyesight with a splash a’ water.”

Nabiki frowned. _That’s not all you’re missing, is it, love?_ she realized as she thought over what she’d picked up from Ranma that day, and what she was feeling now. Or rather, _wasn’t_ feeling now — not a hint of lust in Ranma’s emotional mix. She thought back over what she’d picked up from the other boys she’d encountered that day, and her frown deepened. _I’m not a raving beauty, but I’m not bad-looking, either — even the boys that hate my guts had at least a tinge of lust when they looked at me, but nothing from Ranma at all. This could be bad._ Nabiki found her mind racing in all directions, coming up with multiple half-baked plans to change that, and sternly brought her mind to heel. _Relax, girl, you still have a week and a half before it’ll become obvious to Ranma, so you have some time to work things out._

Missing Nabiki’s concern, Ranma just sat for a few minutes enjoying the moment, then said, “I think I have an answer to our problem.”

“ _Which_ problem?” Nabiki asked with a chuckle, and Ranma grinned.

“I should a’ said _Akane’s_ problem — the Hentai Horde an’ Kuno.”

“You do?” Nabiki asked, sitting up. “Well, don’t just sit there, spill it!”

“I train her after school, an’ join her in fightin’ the Horde and Kuno,” Ranma said with a grin. “Should be fun.”

“And how do you think this will solve Akane’s problem?”

Ranma shrugged. “Half her problem is she’s fightin’ alone. Sure, she’s better than all a’ those perverts put together, but what if somebody gets lucky one day? And goin’ against Kuno is even worse — I’ll bet she knows Kuno’s holdin’ back, he could beat her whenever he wants. What if one day he decides to stop holdin’ back? But if I’m fightin’ beside her, even if one a’ the Horde gets lucky I got her back, and I can take Kuno any day a’ the week.”

“Hmm.” Nabiki leaned back against Ranma and stared thoughtfully up at the leaves blocking her view of the sky. “You know, that just might work. The hard part will be convincing Akane to go along, but if she does the Hentai Horde just might give it up, even if Kuno doesn’t.” _And if it doesn’t, there’s always my video camera. I don’t want to press charges, but I will if I have to._

The bell rang, calling students back to class, and Ranma sighed as he stood up. He offered a hand to Nabiki, but she shook her head with a smile. “I have something I need to take care of, you go ahead. I’ll see you after school, okay?”

“Ya sure ya don’t need any help?” Ranma asked hopefully.

Nabiki laughed. “Forget it, Ranma, I can afford to miss a few classes, you can’t — not yet.”

Ranma pouted, but nodded and headed for the school. Nabiki watched him go with a fond expression, then, as her fiancé disappeared into the school, looked up into the leaves above her. “You might as well come on down,” she said, “it’ll be easier to talk that way.”

For a moment nothing happened, then the leaves above her stirred and a slightly younger purple-haired teenager dropped down next to where Nabiki sat. “Aiyah, how girl know Shampoo there?” the newcomer asked.

Nabiki smirked. “Actually, I’ve known about you following us and haunting the dojo for awhile, and so has Ranma,” she said, and patted the ground beside her. _It’s a little difficult to hide from someone able to see through walls, especially when you don’t know she can._ “So why don’t you sit down and tell me why you’re hanging around?” Nabiki invited.

Xian Pu gazed at her for a moment, then nodded and sat down.

A long explanation later, Nabiki sighed and shook her head. “Girl, if you didn’t have bad luck you’d have no luck at all — Genma may be a fantastic fighter, but he’s no prize.”

Xian Pu nodded sadly in agreement. “Shampoo know, but law is law, and panda is _Airen_.”

“So why are you following Ranma?” Nabiki asked with a sharp look. “You aren’t thinking of him as a replacement for his father, are you?”

“No,” Xian Pu said with a shake of her head. “Shampoo be happy with Spirit Boy, but law not allow because of curse.”

Carefully hiding her relief, Nabiki studied Xian Pu for a time, then smiled. It was obvious that Xian Pu had tried to keep clean, but she’d failed to stay neat — her hair was stringy, her clothes dingy, and she faintly smelled. Perfect. “So, Shampoo, while you’re waiting for the husband hunting party to show up, how’d you like to get to know your future in-laws, by marriage at least? It would be a chance to get _really_ clean.” _And a chance to play with Genma,_ she added to herself with a hidden smirk.

Xian Pu looked down at herself, took a surreptitious sniff, grimaced, and finally nodded. “Shampoo like to be clean again — dirt _itches_!”

“Great, it’s settled!” Nabiki said, standing up. “Let’s head back to the dojo — you’ll love Kasumi, everybody does.”

/oOo\

Nabiki sighed and rubbed her temples, trying to massage away the building headache, leaning back against the dojo wall. Getting away from school had been good (all those negative emotions aimed at her were no fun), introducing Xian Pu to Kasumi had been a joy (as had been watching Genma sweat when he realized where she was from), and basking in Ranma’s love when he got home from school had been divine (even if she’d had to go out and collect his — or rather, ‘her’ at the time — clothing and book bag from by the fountain in the park).

But now Xian Pu had turned down Kasumi’s offer to stay the night and left for her camp, Nabiki’s part-time sort-of lover and little sister were ruining what had been a wonderful afternoon, and she had to leave soon to pick up the books she was borrowing from Nodoka.

“I said _no_!” the aforementioned little sister shouted at the top of her lungs. “I don’t need someone fighting my battles for me! And I _definitely_ don’t need some pervert using training as an excuse to grope me!”

Nabiki shot upright, shocked at the emotional mix she’d picked up from Akane — anger and revulsion were no surprise, but _shame_? But why — “Akane, have any of the Hentai Horde been using the morning fights as cover to try and grope you?” she asked in a tightly controlled voice.

Akane fell silent and looked away, but the blush on her cheeks and the intensification of her shame and revulsion answered for her.

Ranma growled, hands clenched into fists. “You just point out the boys, and I’ll see to it that they never bother you again!” he ground out.

Akane shrugged uncomfortably, now staring at the floor. “It was only a few, at the very beginning. After that I was on guard, but they won’t stop _trying_!” she responded, her voice starting barely above a whisper and rising to a shout.

Nabiki strode over to her and grabbed her shoulders. “Alright, that’s it, nobody messes with my little sister like that. Either you let Ranma fight _with_ you, or I fight _for_ you! Your choice.”

“And how are you gonna to do that? I can take you down without breaking a sweat,” Akane said.

“There’s more ways to fight than just your fists,” Nabiki replied. “In this case, I think a few mornings with my video camera, and then if the Horde doesn’t take the hint a call to the police.”

Akane stiffened and look up — that might actually work! “But ... why haven’t you done it before?” she asked.

It was Nabiki’s turn to stare at the floor in shame as her hands fell away from Akane’s shoulders. “Because I was enjoying watching Daddy’s favorite daughter get attacked every morning,” she mumbled. “It wasn’t until I noticed what it was doing to you that I started getting worried. I’m sorry.” Then, not giving her stunned sibling a chance to respond, she straightened up. “Anyway,” she said firmly, “those are your choices — Ranma trains you and fights with you, or I and my video camera shut it down for you.”

Akane stared at her for a long moment, then reluctantly nodded. “Alright, I’ll let Ranma train me, and join me against Kuno and the Horde.”

“Good,” Nabiki said, then turned to Ranma. “Ranma, I have to leave, to pick up some research materials. Go ahead and get Akane’s training started, but _don’t_ use your father’s training methods — you survived them, but Akane might not be so lucky. Instead, think back to how your _other_ teachers did it, okay?”

Ranma chuckled and nodded. “Right, she’s a bit old for the C-C-Cat Fist, anyway. And after the way you and Mom reacted, I’ll leave that ta Pop — I wouldn’t want _you_ guys mad at me!”

Nabiki winced, then shook her head, smiling wryly, while Akane looked back and forth between the two in confusion. “ ‘Cat Fist’? ‘Mom’?” she asked.

 “Right, I’ll explain later,” Nabiki replied with a nod. “Just take it that Genma put Ranma through pure hell for ten years, not just a few weeks, and that he’ll get his. Oh, and _don’t_ tell Genma that we’ve found Ranma’s mother. Later, kids, have fun!” And with that and a wave the middle Tendo walked out of the dojo. _Okay, so Ranma’s problem with keeping secrets isn’t just an inability to act, something to remember._

/\

The two watched Nabiki disappear through the door, then turned to look at each other. “Okay, now what?” Akane asked grumpily, defensively folding her arms across her chest.

Ranma frowned thoughtfully, scratching the back of his neck. _Great, ya got your first student, and she really doesn’t want ta be here, thinks she already knows it all. Reminds me a’ Pop,_ he thought with a snort of amusement, then stiffened. _That’s it! That time that Pop got a good thumpin’ from that sensei in Fukui ..._

Akane had stiffened at Ranma’s snort, and was now glaring at her erstwhile sensei. “What’s so funny?” she asked suspiciously.

“Just thinkin’ how ya resemble Pop,” Ranma said,shrugging.

“What!?” Akane roared. “There’s no way I’m like that lazy no-good pervert!”

Ranma shrugged. “Can’t disagree with yer description, but ya both think ya can’t be taught. So, let’s do somethin’ about that — attack me.”

“What?” Akane asked, her anger replaced by confusion.

“Attack me,” Ranma repeated, “pretend I’m one a’ the Hentai Horde, one a’ the ones that groped you, gimme yer best shot.”

“Okayyyy,” Akane said uncertainly. She took her basic stance, turned sideways with one arm forward ready for quick strikes or blocks, then frowned at Ranma, standing in front of her with his hands lightly clasped behind his back, bouncing on his heels. “Well, aren’t you going to get ready?” she asked.

Ranma shrugged.  “I _am_ ready,” he said. “Go for it whenever you’re ready.”

_Alright, if that’s the way he wants to play it, let’s get this over fast._ Akane approached him carefully and threw what she thought to be a lightning-fast punch only to have him avoid it easily, bouncing straight up with his legs tucked underneath. Quickly, trying to take advantage of his hang time, she side-kicked up only to have Ranma again avoid what should have been a sure hit with a mid-air splits. She fell back as Ranma landed, then charged forward with a flurry of punches and kicks, only to have Ranma avoid them all easily, this time with his feet staying in the same spot as if nailed there.

Finally, a now sweating Akane again fell back and glared at the _boy_ in front of her — he still looked as fresh as when they’d started! _Okay, that’s it, no more going easy on him,_ she thought through the familiar anger building up. _If he wants to play games, let’s see him shrug_ this _off!_ And she again slowly moved forward toward her tormentor.

Ranma carefully kept the smile off his face as he watched Akane’s slow approach. _Good, she’s gotten angry and finally decided to get serious,_ he thought. _Wait for it, wait for it...._ Then Akane again struck like a viper, only to wince as her punch smashed through the wall, as Ranma again bounced straight up, then pushed off the wall to land behind her and lightly tap the back of her head.

“And you’re unconscious or dead,” he said, and stepped back as Akane turned and stared at him in shock. “You’re fast enough,” he continued, “but I’d say you haven’t had a decent sparring partner in forever — you’re telegraphing yer attacks and putting so much effort inta them that you’re leaving yourself wide open ta counterattacks. Against the Horde, or your average martial artist, that’s not a problem — you’re moving fast enough that they can’t catch up ta ya even if they see ya comin’. But against someone like Kuno that _really_ knows his stuff you’re toast.”

“I’ve held my own against Kuno so far,” Akane ground out, “and I didn’t see you doing so well when he was chasing you through the halls — you actually dove out of a window to get away from him!”

Ranma just shrugged. “I was fightin’ a nutcase splittin’ desks and knockin’ holes in walls an’ floors without caring about all the civilians around us — I was lookin’ fer a place ta fight him where everyone else would be safe. Besides, he _couldn’t_ hit me, could he? Ya _have_ to know he’s been pulling his punches with ya — don’t ya?”

Akane continued to glare at Ranma for a long moment, before her gaze faltered and she looked away. “Yes, I know,” she whispered.

“So how’d ya like ta be good enough that he _isn’t_ pulling his punches and _still_ losing?” Ranma asked. “It’ll take awhile, but there’s no reason ya shouldn’t get there — Kuno focuses too much on looking good instead a’ winning. So, ya ready ta actually learn instead a’ showing off?”

Akane continued to stare at the dojo wall, but finally gave a quick nod.

Ranma gazed at his first student for a long moment and thought back to what had followed his father’s ass-whupping, then said, “Good enough — for now. Let’s start with your stance....”

/oOo\

Nabiki closed the tome she’d borrowed from her future mother-in-law, placed it gently on the bed next to her, then lay down and stared at the ceiling, frowning thoughtfully. The book had been informative, and the information matched what she’d observed so far from living with Ranma, both before and after her/his arrival at the dojo, but there was something ... off ... about the way it _felt_.

_Maybe it’s the way it reads like a nature documentary,_ she thought. _It’s like the writer is studying some rare species of wolf, or lion, or something — all instinct and behavior patterns and nothing about_ culture _, ways of thinking. And there’s something missing ..._ She carefully reviewed what she’d read and compared it to what she’d observed herself, and finally nodded. _It’s Ranma’s ability to influence dreams — the book only talks about it in the context of arousing dreamers, feeding off of them, nothing about the adventures we had after the first few nights when Ranma steered us away from bedrooms — darn it — or even of a succubus just spending some quality time with the dreamer. Surely feeding isn’t the_ only _way succubae have used that ability, it’s too handy. It’s like the writer based this on pure observation, and didn’t bother to_ talk _to any succubae at all. Which means it’s all about outward actions and has nothing about inward motivations. Sloppy. I just hope that means he got it wrong about their mating instincts._

Idly, she glanced at the clock on her desk next to her computer, then shot bolt-upright. _It’s after two in the morning! And there’s school tomorrow — today — and Ranma and Akane are going to be taking on the Horde together. I have_ got _to get some sleep. Better get Ranma up here._

Turning, she looked out the window by her bed and down into the strip of yard between the house and the wall, and smiled — there was Ranma, of course, the naked nature spirit floating a little above the grass, once again running through katas as she continued adapting her old forms to her new capabilities. _All that drive,_ Nabiki thought. _Now, if I could just get her — him, really — to apply it to schoolwork and learn to think ahead a little, he’d take the world by storm._ Then her smile broadened, and turned slightly lascivious. _And she’s cute as a button in the moonlight, good enough to eat, and sooner or later she’s going to let me do that!_

Ranma broke off the kata and looked up at the wave of love/lust from above to smile and wave at the earth-haired girl looking down at her. Floating up to her level, she asked, “Finally ready to call it a night?”

“Yes, I am,” Nabiki said with a mock-frown, “and why didn’t you say something hours ago?”

Ranma just shrugged and passed through the wall into the room. “I did, ya just grunted and waved me off, so I figured it must be somethin’ important.”

Nabiki sighed and stood up to strip off her clothes and slip into a nightgown. “Ranma, I was just brushing off a distraction, it had nothing to do with how important whatever I’m studying was. When I’m like that, you have to get my attention. Now, no feeding tonight — as late as it is, I’ll need all the sleep I can get.”

The cute redhead nodded, tensing slightly and glancing away. “Yeah, I’ll leave ya alone tonight.”

Nabiki looked up at the sensation of shame-tinged uncertainty coming from her sort-of lover, then reached out and grabbed Ranma by the shoulders to pull her into a searing kiss that quickly had Ranma squirming. “That’s regret I was feeling, not relief, you are not imposing on me,” she said firmly when she finally broke it off. “You know I can’t get enough of you.”

Ranma nodded again, but more relaxed (if somewhat breathless) and smiling. “Yeah, I know, but I like ta hear ya say it. I’ll just practice some more till time ta get ready for school.” With that, she floated through the window to the outside and sank down out of sight

Nabiki shook her head with a smile and turned out the light. Slipping into bed, she thought, _It’s going to be an interesting morning, if I can see anything through the yawns._ Then sleep rolled over her like a blanket and she was out.


	5. First Strikes

“I swear, she’s lying in wait, she’s doin’ it on purpose,” the busty redhead grumbled as she floated along beside Nabiki and Akane, Nabiki yet again carrying Ranma’s soaked clothes. Then, Ranma caught the little smile on Nabiki’s face. “She _is_ doin’ it on purpose, isn’t she?” she demanded, and Nabiki nodded.

“Probably,” she said offhandedly. _At least, if the little flash of satisfaction I got from her when you got splashed is any indication._ Then the middle Tendo nodded at an alley between two stores. “That’s what we need, come on.”

“Need for what?” Akane asked as the three turned into the empty dead-end ally.

“To get Ranma back into manly shape,” Nabiki replied, setting down her schoolbag and pulling out a thermos. “I thought this might happen and came prepared.”

“What? Right out in the open?” Akane half-shrieked.

Nabiki shrugged. “So don’t look if you don’t want to. It isn’t like you haven’t seen it all before — briefly,” she said. “You can keep an eye on the sidewalk, make sure nobody notices us.”

“But what about you?”

“Someone has to pour the water,” Nabiki said, then added with a leer, “Besides, I’m going to do a lot more than ogle in a few weeks.”

Akane turned beet-red and whirled away to face the alley entrance. “Perverts,” she muttered as Nabiki and Ranma chuckled.

A few minutes later, the two girls and pigtailed boy resumed their walk to the school.

“Remember,” Ranma said, “don’t charge straight in, wait for ‘em to mostly come to you and _then_ charge.”

“Yeah, I know, you’ve only told me half a dozen times,” Akane grumbled.

Ranma frowned. “That’s because you’ve been doing this the same way every morning, it’s become a habit,” he warned, then exchanged a glance with Nabiki when Akane just shrugged while her face twisted into a snarl.

Then the three were walking through the school gates and Nabiki peeled off to the side as a cry of “Akane!” went up and the Horde rumbled toward them.

Akane’s world went red at the sight and she started to lunge forward, only to jolt to a stop as Ranma’s hand landed on her shoulder. “Remember, wait for it — like I told you,” he said, and Akane blushed again as she nodded. He held them in place for a few more seconds, then shouted “Now!” and the two charged forward to meet the mass of boys.

The front ranks of the Horde paused for a moment, surprised at Ranma’s inclusion in the charge, then were bowled over as the boys behind them weren’t able to stop in time and ran into them. Then Ranma and Akane smashed into them, and hockey sticks, bats, rackets, clubs and boys exploded in all directions. In seconds, there wasn’t a conscious boy on the field except Ranma.

At the front entrance to the school, Kuno stared in shock, then bellowed his outrage as he whipped his bokken from off his back and raised it above his head in what he imagined to be a noble pose. “Ranma, you enslaver of fair flowers of maidenhood! How dare you —” And Ranma and Akane came roaring in with the kind of flying kicks that should only be used against the blind and lame, and Kuno bounced off the wall at his back and landed face down on the sidewalk, out cold.

Back by the gates, Nabiki looked at the crater Kuno had left in the school’s wall, shook her head with a smirk, then looked over at Sayuri and Yuka, standing to the side and gaping at the carnage. “Do you think even jocks stupid as these guys will finally get a clue?” she asked.

Akane’s two friends tore their gaze from the carnage to stare at her. “You mean, Ranma’s going to be joining in _all_ the time now?” Sayuri asked.

“Yeah, every day. After all, he’s her new sensei,” Nabiki replied with a nod. “Pass the word, will you?”

The two girls contined to stare at Nabiki for a moment, then Yuka grinned broadly and Nabiki’s own smile broadened at the satisfaction mixed with anger and loathing radiating from the girl.  Sayuri said, “Of course, we’ll be glad to.”

/\

Gosunkugi watched the pre-school entertainment from the classroom window with other boys, ignoring the burst of conversation following Ranma’s participation in the fight — massacre, really — and ground his teeth, then yawned and turned away to his desk. _Who would have believed there were so_ many _cursed springs in China?_ he thought. _Springs for bad luck, springs for bad health, springs that make you a magnet for supernatural menaces, even springs that make you change into something else with a splash of water!_ Pulling out the textbook for the first class, Gosunkugi sat down and waited for class to begin.

The school day passed in a haze as thoughts of China’s cursed springs continued to churn in the back of his mind, going over the list over and over. _Most likely a partial list,_ he thought with a snarl as he sat down in his usual out of the way place for lunch. _The most promising would be Jusenkyo, but that actually transforms the victim rather than having him change places with someone else, and how would you drown a succubus?_

Then he stiffened, as he thought over Ranma’s behavior — the way he seemed to size up every _guy_ he met, the slight swagger — _Okay, what if he and Nabiki lied — what if he really_ does _transform into a succubus — the way he acts he certainly isn’t going to want to let anyone know, but after hitting the pool a couple days ago in front of everyone.... That must be it, Ranma’s the succubus, and that means I know his true name! And that means that tonight, while ‘she’ and Nabiki are_ enjoying _each other, there’s going to be a summoning._

/oOo\

That night, Nabiki dreamed again of her mother, lying in the hospital bed, skin falling around her bones thanks to the wasting disease that killed her, tubes seeming to stick into her everywhere Nabiki could see. Her father knelt by the bed, clutching one of her mother’s hands with tears pouring down his cheeks while Nabiki held the other and Kasumi sat in a nearby chair holding a terrified Akane in her lap, providing what comfort she could.

The old pain welled up, but this time it was answered by an answering wave of love and sympathy from an unseen Ranma.

“ _Your mother?_ ” asked Ranma’s voice inside her mind.

Nabiki nodded. “ _The day I lost both parents, my mother to disease and my father to grief,_ ” she answered silently.

“ _I’m sorry._ ”

“ _Don’t be, it’s old news._ ”

The hospital room faded away, replaced by a meadow where the two had lounged about and talked other nights, the larger, raven-haired boy sitting on a rock beside a brook. “Not so old if you’re still dreamin’ about it,” he said.

“Well, maybe not,” Nabiki admitted, fighting back tears as she down next to him. “But I have to act as if —”

The meadow shivered as Nabiki’s head rang like a bell, then vanished as she shot upright to a sitting position in her bed, looking around wildly. _My wards!_ she thought with a gasp, looking out the window and starting to focus to bring them more strongly into view, then freezing — the effort wasn’t necessary, the wards covering the dojo grounds were fluorescing bright enough to blind if it had been actual light.

Then, slowly, the light steadied and faded and Nabiki slumped in relief. _They held,_ she thought, then looked around the room and realized something was missing, or rather someone. “Ranma?” she said softly, then again more loudly as she looked out the window, scanning the grounds, “Ranma!”

/\

Ranma had been sitting on a rock in the meadow of his favorite memory, when suddenly his head rang like a bell, and she found herself back in Nabiki’s bedroom, her one-way lover’s arms around her. Even as she felt Nabiki jerk awake, she felt something else odd, like a slight tugging on her center, trying to pull her away ... somewhere else. Instinctively, she pulled back, and suddenly an odd, twisting sensation washed away the tugging feeling as she sank back into the older girl.

Then the body she was suddenly sharing with Nabiki snapped upright, and she gasped at the sight of the wards lighting up the night, before they steadied and faded back to normal. Nabiki slumped in relief, then looked around. “Ranma?” she asked, and Ranma found their shared eyes searching the grounds out the window as Nabiki called out her name again.

“ _Right here,_ ” Ranma thought, then felt a touch of vertigo as Nabiki looked around again.

“Where?” her fiancée asked.

“ _Uh, I think I’m inside you,_ ” Ranma responded.

Nabiki froze, then to Ranma’s relief closed her eyes. “ _You mean you’ve_ possessed _me?_ ” Nabiki thought inwardly, and felt an arm try to lift her hand to her neck.

“ _If ya mean I somehow mixed in with you, yeah, I guess so. Sorry ‘bout that._ ”

“ _Don’t be sorry, this is great!_ ” Nabiki enthused. “ _It means you’re growing more into your powers. Now, do you think you can get_ out _of me?_ ”

“ _Sure,_ ” Ranma thought, then thought back over how it had felt to merge, remembered the twisting feeling, somehow pulled _out_ — and found herself floating next to Nabiki, half-sunk into the bed.

Nabiki jerked, startled to suddenly find Ranma beside her, then grinned, only to have the grin fade to a thoughtful frown.

Ranma stiffened at the feeling of concern she was suddenly radiating. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

Nabiki shrugged. “Not much,” she replied, “only that my book didn’t mention that succubae could possess people. Makes me wonder what else it left out or didn’t get quite right. Can you do that again?”

“I dunno, let’s find out,” Ranma said, reached out to hold Nabiki’s hand, somehow _reached_ , and again found herself looking through Nabiki’s widened eyes as her lover’s shock reverberated through her.

Nabiki took a deep breath, then thought, “ _That looked weird, like you were just sucked into me! Felt strange, too. Now come on out, you may as well go guy and spend the night with your father or practice katas. I’m not going to be getting to sleep for awhile._ ” At the feel of Ranma’s unspoken question she smiled wryly. “ _I’m going to be trying to find out who tried to break through my wards, and why._ ”

/\

In a shed on the grounds of Furinkan High, Gosunkugi writhed, screaming, candles knocked in all directions, brazier kicked over, chalked lines and symbols smeared and broken. Finally, the pain receded to a massive pounding in his head and the hollow-eyed boy drew a deep shuddering breath and pulled himself to his knees and carefully looked around. _How?!_ he thought. _Yes, she’s powerful, but I spend_ hours _priming the summoning. Surely not even_ her _wards should have been able to prevent it! And I could have sworn I felt the ritual latch onto something for a moment...._

Slowly, he pulled himself to his feet and stared around at the mess, then snarled on looking down at his charred, wax-spattered, chalk-smeared clothing. _That was one of my favorite outfits, one more thing Nabiki owes me for. I’ll just have to figure out how she was able to stop the summoning — once I change and get everything cleaned up._

/\

In a rosebush in the yard of the house across the street from the dojo entrance, Gorash rubbed its eyes, its sight slowly coming back as the afterimages of the wards’ flare-up faded away. Finally, the imp turned to its companion. Grimly, it said, “I think this warrants an immediate report to Mara, see to it.” The other imp nodded and slipped down the street to the space between houses, into shadows between the two buildings, and vanished from sight.

/oOo\

Nabiki did her best to not to snarl as she walked between Ranma and Akane, all of them in their school uniforms and headed for another wonderful day at Furinkan High — though Nabiki’s dress was somewhat less ... decorous ... (not to say, shorter) than usual. _Six days, and not even a hint at who tried to break my shields!_ she thought yet again, teeth grinding despite her best efforts, only to be interrupted by a huge yawn. _Four hours sleep_ again _, yeah, today’s going to be fun._

Suddenly, Ranma dropped and rolled, springing to his feet, and Nabiki tried to stop — too late, and the water aimed for Ranma soaked one side of her school uniform. Just behind her, Akane’s laughter dropped her to her knees as she clutched her sides. Nabiki turned to glare at the Ladle Lady. The old woman just shrugged with a slight smile (and an inward touch of delight) and turned to go back inside, and the middle Tendo turned her glare on her fiancé. Ranma tugged at his ponytail, an abashed look on his face.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” he said sheepishly.

Nabiki took a deep breath, let it out as she resumed walking, then said, “Not your fault, I should have been paying attention.”

Ranma turned to walk beside her while Akane forced her laughter down to chuckles as she climbed to her feet and hurried to catch up. “Yeah, you normally stop there, is something wrong?” the youngest Tendo asked.

Nabiki shook her head, then yawned again. “No, just tired from trying to find who hit my wards.”

Akane nodded, looking away uncomfortably, but Ranma shot his fiancée a concerned look. _Yes, I know, you’ve been picking up my worry when in nature spirit form,_ Nabiki thought to herself, carefully keeping her expression even. _I’m almost grateful for whoever attacked us, it makes a good cover for what’s_ really _on my mind the most._

Then the three turned through the school ground gates, and Nabiki peeled off while the other two got their additional morning exercise beating Upperclassman Kuno unconscious. Nabiki smirked at the sight while pulling out her cell phone and hitting a speed dial number. _Well, at least that much is still going right — there hasn’t been a gathering of the Hentai Horde since the second day Ranma joined in. I guess even jocks can recognize reality when it beats them into the ground two days in a row._

“Hello, Nodoka? Nabiki here ... yes, I’m doing fine, mostly, just a little tired ... no, Ranma isn’t keeping me up nights, something’s come up. Will you be home tonight? ... Yeah, we need to talk.”


	6. Things Come in Threes

Nabiki and Ranma walked towards Dr. Tofu’s office, Nabiki ignoring the now familiar imps trailing them. She occasionally glanced toward the bandage taped to the side of Ranma’s face, large enough to completely cover one cheek, and did her best not to giggle. _Stop that! The Ice Queen does not_ giggle _, so keep control, you’re in public!_ “So, Ranma,” she said, slightly breathless from the effort to keep her voice steady, “just what were you thinking about that distracted you so much that you didn’t notice the baseball coming?”

“Nothin’!” Ranma almost shouted. “Just some stupid questions from some a’ the guys in class.”

“Oh? About what?”

“Nothin’,” Ranma said shortly.

Nabiki glanced at him again, and managed to turn her giggle into a chuckle. “You might as well tell me, I’ll just find out from one of your classmates. Or — I could test how ticklish you are again tonight, compare one form to the other,” she added with a whimsical grin.

Ranma blanched. “Okay, I’ll talk, I’ll talk! Anything but that!” He grinned back, then shrugged. “They were just askin’ about ... about us.”

“Us? What about ‘us’?” Nabiki asked when Ranma failed to continue.

“About things that are none a’ their business,” Ranma growled, blushing and radiating angry embarrassment.

 _Wonderful — I’ve managed to catch the right kind of attention from the wrong people,_ Nabiki thought, suppressing a sigh.

Just then they turned the corner to the clinic, and Nabiki’s eyebrows rose at the sight of a cluster of people at the front door. “Okano-san what’s going on?” she asked one man at the back of the pack.

“Oh, hello, Tendo-san. Your sister’s inside with the doctor,” Okano said. “It might be worth your life to go in right now.”

“Kasumi, here?!” Nabiki exclaimed, then grabbed Ranma’s arm and pulled him through the mob to the front door. “Hurry, Ranma, I want you to see this!”

Once in the waiting room, Nabiki pulled Ranma to a stop and hastily opened her book bag. “Come on, I know it’s in here — got it!” She pulled out a thermos and twisted off the cap.

“Nabiki, what’s goin’ —” Ranma got out just before catching a splash of water in the face. Instantly, his clothes dropped through the now red-haired nature spirit to the floor, followed by the bandage that had been taped to his cheek. “What was that for?” Ranma demanded.

“You’ll be safer this way, and I want to see if you notice anything, come on,” Nabiki said, pausing for a brief moment to run appreciative eyes over the full frontal view offered by the lack of clothes, then grabbing the other girl’s arm and pulling her toward the door to the examination room. “When we get in there, focus on the doc — well, that won’t be hard, but see if you can sense anything wrong with him.”

The two stepped/floated into the room to find Kasumi and Dr. Tofu, the dark-haired man with a checkered towel tied around his neck and ... taking bites out of a plate full of cookies!

Kasumi turned to look at the newcomers, her usual look of placid cheerfulness firmly in place, and both Ranma and Nabiki slammed to a stop as a wave of bitter despair from the older Tendo mixed with manic happiness from Dr. Tofu washed over them. “Whoa!” Ranma gasped, actually floating back a couple of feet.

The sound of her voice drew the attention of the doctor, and he stopped taking bites out of the plate and turned toward them. “Oh, I have patients!” he exclaimed. Turning to the skeleton he’d used to frighten Ranma the week before, now on its stand by the wall, he said, “Betty, please fetch some tea.”

“No need, thank you,” Nabiki managed to get out. “This is Ranko, a new friend of the family. Ranko, this is Dr. Tofu.” Leaning over to Ranma, she hissed, “Check out Tofu!”

Ranma started and shook herself out of her shock from the emotional assault. She looked closely at Tofu, and her eyes narrowed. There was something odd about him, an aura that seemed to surround him, to reach out and ... the nature spirit followed it and her eyes widened as the whatever-it-was mixed with a similar something radiating from Kasumi! And whatever it was, it felt ... ugly, slimy.

“Well, if you don’t want any tea, let’s see what I can do for you,” Dr. Tofu continued, stepping forward and reaching for the busty nature spirit floating in front of him.

Ranma flinched slightly at the worry that suddenly spiked from both Tendo sisters. Nabiki hurriedly grabbed her fiancé’s arm and pulled her out of the doctor’s reach. “Actually, Dr. Tofu, we’re just here to collect Kasumi, we thought we’d walk home with her.”

The manic happiness that had been assaulting Nabiki and Ranma ebbed as it mixed with growing sadness. “Oh, that’s too bad,” a suddenly calmer Tofu said, turning to the older sister. “But please come again, Kasumi. I enjoy your visits.”

Kasumi forced a smile and nodded. “Of course, Dr. Tofu, I would be glad to,” she said, and hurried to join Ranma and Nabiki. With a quick round of goodbyes, the three were on their way.

/\

For a time, the three girls walked/floated along in silence as the despair radiating from Kasumi slowly ebbed, replaced by weary resignation. Finally, Nabiki quietly said, “I didn’t realize how badly you were taking the doc’s little problem, big sis. I’m sorry.”

Kasumi gave her sister a wan smile. “No reason you should have, little sis — I did my best to keep anyone from knowing, after all. I hoped ... well, I guess it doesn’t matter what I hoped, he isn’t getting any better, is he?”

“Doesn’t seem like it,” Nabiki agreed. “Ranko, I know you were shocked but I couldn’t tell if it was just the Doc or something else. Did you sense anything?”

Ranma frowned thoughtfully. “Yeah, I did,” she said, “but I don’t know what it means. There was ... somethin’, I’m not sure how ta describe it. It was like he was ... shinin’ ... with some sort a’ ... I can’t say what, just that I didn’t like it. But whatever it was, Kasumi had it, too, an’ the two ... whatevers ... were reachin’ out, mixin’ together.”

The Tendo sisters had slammed to a stop and were now staring at the succubus. Then Nabiki’s eyes narrowed. “So, does Kasumi have that ... aura ... right now?” she asked intently.

Ranma shook her head. “No, it faded as soon as we left Dr. Tofu’s.”

“Okay ... _now_ I have something to work with,” Nabiki said as she started walking again, the other two hurrying to catch up. “Ranma, I’ll bet that what you sensed was a curse — but a two-part curse, that only activates when both victims are close together. That would be why I didn’t find anything when I checked out the possibility, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Dr. Tofu missed it for the same reason.”

Picking up the pace to a near-trot, she tossed over her shoulder, “Come on, let’s get home, I want to check out some things before I leave this evening!”

/oOo\

Nodoka smiled as she let the two older Tendo sisters into her home. “Nabiki, it’s good to see you again this early, I didn’t expect to see you until the weekend. And this is Kasumi?”

Nabiki nodded, eyebrows rising at the formal kimono the older woman wore, the unhappy tension she radiated, as Kasumi bowed. “Yes,” the middle Tendo replied. “Nodoka, my older sister, and the one that tried her best to raise me after Mother died, Kasumi.”

Nodoka returned Kasumi’s bow. “Tendo-san,” she said quietly, “I owe you a debt of honor. At the time of your mother’s death the earliest reports of my former husband’s return to petty crime were surfacing and I was obsessed with finding him and my son. In my fear and confusion, I betrayed my friend and abandoned her children when they needed me most — especially you.”

Kasumi stiffened, an uncomfortable expression crossing her face before it returned to her usual serene expression. “Please, Saotome-san, don’t — I had no expectation that you would help, I received the help I needed, and Nabiki has told me of what you were going through. I do not hold the lack of support against you, and ask that you don’t hold it against yourself.”

A relieved Nodoka bowed again. “You are generous, Tendo-san, but nonetheless, I will seek to amend my failure if the opportunity arises. We are to be family, after all.”

At that, Kasumi smiled brightly and Nabiki relaxed slightly as her sister’s abrupt tension was replaced by warm happiness. “Yes, we are, and I am glad. And please, call me Kasumi.”

Nodoka returned the smile. “And you must call me Nodoka, as Nabiki does.” Then, mock-frowning at Nabiki she added, “You _will_ call me ‘Mother’ one day as Ranma does!”

Nabiki just chuckled and shook her head, ignoring a slight spike of grief from both of the others, and Nodoka waved the two girls toward a low table set with the makings for tea.

/\

Opening courtesies complete, Nodoka turned her attention to her future daughter-in-law. “Nabiki, I have to say I was surprised by your call this morning. What is so important that it couldn’t wait until the weekend? You and Ranma were already planning to visit, after all.”

Nabiki grimaced slightly. “Actually, that was part of the reason I’m here early — we really need to discuss this without Ranma around, and if he asks Akane’s nightly training makes a good excuse for not bringing him along. Not that he’s going to ask, he trusts me.”

For a moment Nabiki paused, face turning gentle, before she sobered, continuing, “But Ranma wasn’t the only reason, and then something that happened this afternoon added yet another problem, which is why I asked if I could bring Kasumi.”

Nodoka stiffened, gaze sharpening as she looked over at Kasumi again. “Tell me what happened,” she ordered.

Nabiki took a moment to order her thoughts. “It started about five years ago. For years before that, Dr. Tofu had been treating Akane, and it’s fair to say that he’s become a close friend of the family — all of us, not just Akane, even if the physical injuries she had while trying to train herself were the reason we saw him as often as we did. In that time he seemed a rather quiet, calm man, if given to the occasional practical joke.

“Generally that is still the case, so long as Kasumi isn’t around. But for the past five years, when she is around he becomes manic, delusional, and dangerous — he is a highly skilled chiropractor, among other things, and in his manic state anyone he gets his hands on is at risk of injury at best, death at worst.

“Once I went through my Awakening and became aware of the reality of curses I thought that he might be under one, so I checked: human, demonic, nature spirit, even divine. I found nothing, and reluctantly concluded that our friend just had a screw loose for some reason — perhaps he fell in love with big sis when she was only fourteen, and couldn’t handle it.

“It turns out that I was wrong. Kasumi has been paying occasional visits to the good Doctor, hoping that time or exposure would get him over his little problem, though she’s never said just why she’s so eager for that.” The middle Tendo glanced over at her older sister, grinning. Kasumi studiously ignored her, but a faint tinge of pink colored her cheeks. Turning her attention back to Nodoka, who was smiling slightly at the unspoken exchange, Nabiki continued, “Today she paid Dr. Tofu one of her little visits, and this time Ranma was there, in spirit form. She told me afterward that while Kasumi and Dr. Tofu were in the same room they were _both_ shining with some sort of aura, reaching out to each other and intermingling. When Kasumi left Dr. Tofu’s office, that aura quickly vanished.

“Ranma didn’t recognize the feel of whatever that aura was, but said it felt slimy, ugly. I suspect that both Kasumi and Dr. Tofu are under a demonic curse that only activates when the two are together. Whatever it is, I couldn’t find a trace of it, even though I tried for hours. But while I’m more powerful than you are, from your library I’d say you’re more experienced than I am. I’m hoping that you can find something I can’t, perhaps do something about it.”

Nodoka nodded, gazing thoughtfully at the two sisters. “You are right that I am less powerful than you — I’m barely powerful enough to act as a Scout, you could easily qualify as a full-fledged Hunter with some training. Still, I have had some years of practice, I’ll see what I can learn. But that will take some time, so let’s cover the other problems first, what’s next?”

“Well, I suppose the next problem would be the fact that last week someone rang my bell — tried to break through my wards. So far as I can tell whoever it was failed, I haven’t been able to find any signs of hostile magic within my wards’ boundaries, but I haven’t been able to learn who it was. All I know is that whoever it was is human, but I’ve known that all along. I’m guessing I was the target, as far as I know I’m the only one living there that moves in the circles that would employ such an attack, but it could have been targeted at someone else in order to strike at me indirectly. The problem is that I can’t think of anyone like that that I might have offended directly. There are way too many possibilities I may have offended indirectly, though, and I’m pretty sure I don’t know all the Awakened powers in Nerima. You’ve been Awakened longer than I have, would it be possible for you to make a list and provide capsule backgrounds of the Neriman Awakened you know? Perhaps something will jog a memory.”

Nodoka nodded, face stiff with worry. “Certainly, Nabiki, I will be happy to help. Is there anything else unusual that’s been happening lately that might hint at who it might be?”

Nabiki started to shake her head, then paused. “Actually ... maybe. Shortly after Ranma first showed up in my summoning circle an imp — or maybe imps, they’re hard to tell apart at a distance — started following me around. It tries to stay hidden and never gets close enough to be listening to my conversations, so I pretend I don’t know it’s there. I’m not sure it has anything to do with the attack, it started following me weeks before, but that’s the only other odd thing to happen lately.”

“Hmmm, you could be right, but it _is_ odd,” Nodoka agreed. “When I make the list I’ll note which ones are suspected of trafficking with demons. I wouldn’t advise ignoring the rest of the list, but the summoners probably include your attacker.

“You know,” she added, shooting Nabiki a searching look, “I didn’t realize I’d heard about you already until after your first visit, but before I met you I would have included your own name as one of those demon summoners.”

Nabiki froze for a long moment, mind racing. _Oh, crap! What do I say?_ She frantically scrolled through a list of stories and excuses, until she firmly brought her panic to heel. _This is Ranma’s mother, anything you tell her has a high chance of getting back to him. Play it straight._ Forcing herself to relax, she shrugged. “You would have been right to do so,” she admitted calmly, “though only imps and never to do anything but spy. But that all stopped once I got to know Ranma — he doesn’t approve, and that’s good enough for me.”

Nodoka continued to gaze at Nabiki. Finally, she said, “Good enough. I’ll make the list and have it ready by your weekend visit. You said you had at least two problems even before Kasumi’s visit to Dr. Tofu, so what’s the next problem?”

Buying time to order her thoughts, Nabiki picked up her tea cup, then grimaced slightly when she found it had cooled. Putting it down, she sighed, eyes on the tabletop. “Nodoka, the last problem ... I ... I haven’t been completely forthcoming with you, when it comes to what kind of nature spirit Ranma is. Ranma is ... is a succubus.” Nodoka stiffened, and Nabiki, catching it out of the corner of her eye, looked up. “You recognize the type?” she asked.

Nodoka nodded, fighting through her shock. “Yes, I once rescued one that had been enslaved.” Suddenly, she started chuckling even as she went a little green. “No wonder you reacted so strongly when I apologized for not being able to supply whatever Ranma needed to feed on!”

Nabiki laughed again at the memory even as Kasumi flinched, then sobered. “After the first meeting I found out that Ranma isn’t the only empath around — so am I, now. And there’s a serious problem with Ranma.” She paused again while the others waited patiently, then finally continued, “While I have no problem with taking Ranma to bed as a human man, we haven’t yet — I have no birth control, have no intention of risking blackmail or having my reputation ruined by acquiring any, won’t risk needing an abortion, and when Ranma and the Panda arrived I was at the most fertile point in my cycle. So I told Ranma we’d have to wait a few weeks.”

She paused, watching Nodoka while ignoring Kasumi’s stiff-faced disapproval, but Nodoka simply waited, face noncommittal. Finally shrugging slightly, Nabiki continued, “Well, two weeks will be up this weekend, and I’m scared that when the time comes Ranma will be unable to perform. And when that happens he is going to be devastated — he’s managed to avoid a lot of the crap Genma’s pushed on him, but for some reason the need to be ‘a man’ hasn’t. His definition of what it means to be a man doesn’t quite match his father’s, but it does include sex.”

“How do you know this?” Nodoka asked when Nabiki paused.

“Just because we haven’t slept together while he’s human doesn’t mean we haven’t had sex. I insisted shortly before he arrived, when I realized she was starving. But it was all I could do to talk her into it, she was afraid she’d like it too much as a girl. And when we do it’s all her on me, she won’t let me touch her; and she calls it ‘feeding’.”

Nodoka nodded thoughtfully, she and Nabiki ignoring Kasumi’s uncomfortable squirming. “That makes sense,” the older woman mused, “but how do you know that my son will have trouble performing?”

“Because of my new empathic abilities — I first noticed it right after our first meeting,” Nabiki explained. “Since then, I’ve noticed that, while I get at least a mildly lustful once-over from practically every teenage boy I meet, I don’t get anything like that from Ranma at all. Happiness, anger, frustration, contentment ... love ... yes, but not a hint of lust. At first, I thought he might be gay when human, but it’s not that, either — he pays no more attention to other guys, sexually at least, than he does to me. I’ve tried dressing more provocatively, to the point that I’m ruining my reputation, but nothing. Or rather, something from all the guys but the one I want.”

Nabiki paused in thought for a moment. “I suspect it’s because of how Ranma’s an empath when a succubus, I think he’s now missing some emotional signal as a human that he’s — she’s ... missing as a succubus, and when he realizes that he will never be able to perform as a guy he’ll take it badly.”

“Why haven’t you simply gotten Ranma to change into his male form while a succubus? I’d think that would solve his problem right now, instead of waiting,” Nodoka said absentmindedly, thinking over what she’d just heard.

Nabiki stared, stunned. “Male form? What male form?” she asked.

Nodoka focused on Nabiki, confused, then suddenly laughed. “Of course, you wouldn’t know. You’ve been basing what you know on the books I loaned you, correct?”

“Yes, especially _An Introduction to the Nature Spirits of Europe_ ,” Nabiki agreed.

Nodoka shook her head ruefully. “I’m afraid that one has some gaps and misapprehensions. Especially, it assumes that succubae are naturally female.”

“They _aren’t_?” the Tendo sisters chorused.

“No, they aren’t,” Nodoka replied. “I had a long talk with the succubus I rescued and I learned that while they are born female, they are actually asexual — they don’t have a single sex, but take on whichever form the person they’re feeding off of is most attracted to. That’s when they actually feed through physical stimulation rather than dream-feeding that is, have you and Ranma tried that?”

“Twice — the first two times, actually, when we didn’t realize what was going on,” Nabiki admitted. “But we haven’t since I figured it out. Ranma’s been afraid of losing control like he did the first time and hurting me somehow, so we’ve been sticking to actual physical, if one-sided, sex. A male form ... yes, that would solve this little problem. But what if he can’t change? All the succubus abilities he’s manifested so far have happened through instinct and circumstance.”

“Oh, that won’t be a problem in the long run,” Nodoka said offhandedly. “Turning male is part of the succubus mating process, if nothing else my son will learn then. But Ranma may not take waiting that long well, especially when he learns that he has to have sex with a man first — has he shown any attraction to men while a succubus?”

“I ... no, not that I’ve noticed, great, another problem to worry about ... Nodoka, you’re taking this incredibly well,” Nabiki said, a questioning lilt to her voice.

“Nodoka smiled. “Oh, if this had happened when Ranma left on the training trip, I would have been horrified. But now ... now I’m just happy to finally have my son back in my life. So long as he is truly honorable, I’ll take him as he comes — curse and all. Besides,” she continued with a slight wistful smile, “he’ll still be able to sire children to pass the family legacy on to, even if they won’t necessarily be human.”

She gazed off into empty space for a time, then focused on the two stunned girls and chuckled. “Still, that won’t help us here and now if Ranma can’t learn the trick of changing his ... her, I suppose ... shape. I assume you’ve been thinking about this already, Nabiki, do you have any ideas?”

Shaking herself out of her shock, Nabiki nodded. “Yes, I do. If Ranma can’t change into a male succubus —”

“Incubus,” Nodoka broke in.

Nabiki nodded at the correction. “— incubus,” she continued, “he’ll need support, people he cares about telling him that it doesn’t matter. I can’t really, he knows I’m bisexual. Kasumi can’t, she doesn’t really approve of me and Ranma getting physical and I think Ranma’s picked up on that when she’s a nature spirit.” Ignoring Kasumi’s wincing blush and the shame that accompanied it, Nabiki finished, “That leaves you. I think it’s time for you to come visit us and get an explanation from your ex-husband, and coincidentally be on hand if Ranma can’t perform and doesn’t take it well. Do you think you can keep from killing Genma?”

Nodoka’s eyes lit up, and Nabiki had to laugh as the older woman practically glowed with a mix of eagerness, love, worry, anger and satisfaction. “That sounds like an _excellent_ suggestion,” the auburn-haired woman gushed. “Yes, I think I can control myself in the Panda’s presence, at least that much. When should I visit?”

Nabiki forced her laughter down to chuckles as Kasumi smiled at Nodoka’s enthusiasm. “I was thinking Saturday morning ...”

/\

Invisible to the woman and two girls she had been spying on, Mara slowly floated out of the room, frowning thoughtfully even as she carefully maintained her obscuration field. _I’m glad I was able to pay closer attention to this when Gorash suggested it,_ she thought gleefully as she slipped out of the house. _There may actually be an opportunity, here...._


	7. The Eternal Rival

As yet another school day ended at Furnikan High School, a tall boy in worn, dust-covered clothing with a black with a yellow bandana around his head and carrying a large backpack with an umbrella strapped across the top stood in the entrance gazing into the schoolyard as exiting students flowed about him. _Could it be? Have I finally caught up with that coward?_ he wondered, eyes scanning the crowd. There! A familiar raven-haired, ponytailed boy had left the school and was running in his direction with a cute raven-haired girl in pursuit. _Perfect._

/\

Nabiki smiled as she stepped through the open front doors of the school building. The day had been pretty good, better than in some time. While Nodoka hadn’t been able to dispel the curse on Kasumi last evening, she had been able to verify that there was one — deeply buried, but there, demonic in origin. Nodoka had speculated that the curse couldn’t be dispelled unless both halves of the curse were present. Beyond that, Nabiki had been able to finally share her worries with a sympathetic ear and would have some backup if things didn’t go well Saturday night, as well as perhaps some leads on who had attacked her the previous week. And she was _finally_ beginning to learn how to mute the impact of the emotions constantly assaulting her, especially at school. All told, things were looking up.

She watched Ranma and Akane break away from her at a run, ponytail and long flowing hair blowing back. Ranma had decided Akane wasn’t fast enough when it came to distance running, and so had started having her race him home. Akane, on the other hand, had been jogging for years as part of her self-imposed training regimen, and was determined to prove she could match her sensei in at least one area. Unfortunately, if Ranma had decided she needed to get faster it meant he already was, so she was going to be sorely disappointed — especially since he’d decided to mix in improving her ability to jump. _That’s going to make the atmosphere a little uncomfortable at home,_ the middle Tendo thought with a grimace. _Ah, well, as long as she’s getting better —_

“Ah!” Nabiki suppressed a shout as a sudden wave of virulent anger mixed with frustration and — was that relief? — smashed into her. She fought the urge to grab at her head, wincing as she swept her eyes across the schoolyard. Where had it come from — ?

Her vision was drawn to her laughing fiancé jumping over the heads of his classmates, and her eyes widened even as she jolted forward into a run with a warning shout at the sight of another boy leaping out of nowhere, even higher than Ranma had, umbrella poised to thrust. Even as Nabiki shouted Ranma twisted to avoid the downthrust point, then the two boys disappeared into the crowd of teenagers and the crowd seemed to jolt back in all directions as what sounded like an explosion jolted her ears.

Frantically pushing through the crowd, Nabiki gasped in relief at the sight of Ranma flipping to land beside Akane on the lip of a new crater. “You haven’t changed, Ranma,” the strange boy kneeling in the center of the crater said, “you’re still good at running away.”

/\

Ranma stared at the strangely familiar face of the boy in the center of the crater, as his student and fiancée stepped up on each side. “So, Ranma, anyone you know?” Nabiki asked. Ranma glanced at her in concern — she seemed a little pale and was staring wide-eyed at the crater the stranger’s attack had made — then back at the boy.

“Yeah, sure, he’s ... he’s ... uh ...”

“Don’t strain your brain remembering, Ranma,” Akane said with a smirk from his other side.

“Just tell me one thing, Ranma,” broke in the newcomer, voice rising to a shout. “Why did you run from our fight!?”

“Fight? What fight — wait, I remember now, you’re Hibiki Ryoga, from my last school! I waited three days at the appointed place.”

“Yes, and when I arrived on the fourth day you’d already run away!” Ryoga retorted angrily.

Ranma shrugged. “Uh, Ryoga, why did it take ya four days to reach an empty lot only five hundred yards from yer house down a straight street?”

Ryoga purpled in rage as he heard the amazed murmurs of the crowd around them. “Bad sense of direction?” ... “Very bad.” ... “Very bad, indeed.” Yanking his umbrella up from where it was imbedded in the ground, he charged, swinging, as he shouted, “Well, we finish this fight now!”

Ranma jumped straight up and simultaneously kicked to each side, knocking Nabiki out of the way, his other foot hitting only empty air — Akane had already dropped below the threat and was rolling to the side. “Hey, watch it, you could hurt somebody!” he shouted, even as he glanced over — Nabiki was getting up from where she’d knocked another student over, good. As he landed, he glanced to the other side — Akane was rolling to her feet, great, she was remembering her lessons.

“I intend to hurt someone, stand and fight like a man!” Ryoga yelled back, flipping open the umbrella and preparing to throw it.

“I meant — okay, fine. Ya want a fight, ya got one — right now, in the school stadium, before somebody else gets hurt.”

Ryoga paused, then nodded. “You’re on!” he growled, and started to walk toward the school gates.

“Uh, Ryoga,” Ranma called out, then pointed toward the other side of the school. “The stadium’s _that_ way.”

Ryoga stared levelly at his nemesis, ignoring his faint blush. “Right.”

/oOo\

In the middle of the school stadium, the two boys faced off as those school students that had been present for Ryoga’s arrival sat on the grass of the inclines surrounding the playing field and used for seating for the spectators. More students were filtering in, mostly called on cellphones by friends already present.

“Ya know, Ryoga, you’ve gone ta a lot of trouble for a school rivalry,” Ranma said quietly. “This is silly. What d’ya say we just put on a sparring exhibition fer our audience and call it good?”

Ryoga growled. “Not a chance, Ranma. Because of you, I’ve seen hell! There is no way I am going to let you get away with it.”

Ranma sighed. _I can’t believe I’m trying to get out of a challenge — Nabiki must be rubbing off on me._ “All right, let’s get this over with,” he said, falling into his loose, relaxed ready stance.

Instantly, Ryoga charged forward, thrusting over and over with his umbrella as Ranma danced back to avoid the attacks then jumped, spinning over the larger boy and landing behind him.

Snarling, Ryoga whirled, popped open his umbrella, then sent it spinning toward Ranma and charged in its wake. Ranma easily dodged the umbrella but, distracted, failed to dodge the bandana Ryoga had whipped off his forehead and wrapped around Ranma’s wrist, binding the two boys together. For the first time, the ponytailed boy struck back and the two boys rapidly exchanged strikes and blocks.

/\

Up on the grassy incline, a tense Nabiki sat by her younger sister, her head already starting to pound from emotion overload from all the excited students around her. “This is madness,” she muttered. “What does Ranma think he’s doing?”

“Showing off, what else?” Akane responded sarcastically, eyes glued to the two below.

Nabiki shook her head. “That’s not fair, Akane,” she said reprovingly as the fight began. “You’ve been training under him for over a week now, you know better. Sure, he likes to show how good he is, but he’s no glory hound.”

“Well ... maybe,” Akane muttered, her eyes tracking the spinning umbrella for a moment as it whirled past the her and her sister, then looked back at the pair now spinning around each other below, now connected at the wrists by a yellow and black strip of cloth.

Suddenly, a student’s voice to the side caught the two sisters’ attention. “Yow, what’s with this umbrella!?” The two Tendos looked over to see a boy trying to hold the umbrella out straight with both hands — and failing miserably, unable to keep the tip from drooping to the ground.

Frowning, Akane got up and walked over. Reaching out a hand, she took the umbrella’s grip from the gasping student and, straining every muscle to the utmost, she held the umbrella level at arm’s length. Her eyes widened at the effort it took as the memory of Ryoga effortlessly using the umbrella like a sword, throwing it spinning like a top, flashed through her mind. And even Ranma admitted that she was stronger than he was.... Dropping the odd weapon, she whirled back to face the two fighters still spinning around each other. “Sensei, get away from him, fast!” she shouted. “He has the strength of a monster!”

Suddenly, the two combatants seemed to twist around each other, and then Ranma was sitting on Ryoga’s back, the bigger boy pinned in place by his arm trapped between his legs, held in place by the bandana tying him to Ranma’s wrist. “Hey, not a problem!” Ranma called back. “Strength doesn’t matter if you can’t ... apply it?” he finished questioningly as he felt himself rising, Ryoga lifting both of their bodies up with one hand. A moment later, the crowd gasped as Ryoga actually thrust the two up into the air! For a moment the two combatants spun around each other, exchanging kicks even as they rose and fell, then it was Ranma’s turn to land on one hand even as he thrust back with both feet and sent the larger boy flying as the bandana finally tore from the strain. Leaping to his feet, Ranma leaped for where Ryoga landed, onlookers scattering away from him.

Akane dashed toward the two fighters. Nabiki rose to follow her, then froze. Even with the chaos of emotions surrounding her, overwhelming the shields she was just beginning to develop, there was someone nearby with an oddly familiar feel, someone important — then she saw the purple-haired girl not wearing a school uniform, the tight clothes she _was_ wearing grubby from a week’s worth of constant wear and less than efficient washing. _Shampoo! What’s she doing here? She said she wasn’t after Ranma...._

“Who are ya calling a girl!?” the middle Tendo heard her fiancé shout. Whirling, she watched as the two fighters dashed past her, Ryoga grabbing up his umbrella in passing, and bounced over the fence along the top of the grassy incline and vanished from sight. “Well!? Who are ya calling a girl!?” she heard him shout again, and suddenly a spout of water fountained into the air.

_Oh, shit! The water fountain!_ Nabiki thought even as she ran for the exit with the other students, barely catching sight of Akane and Xian Pu bouncing directly over the fence out of the corner of her eye. _Maybe I really should take up the Art again._

/\

Ranma groaned as the water splashed over him, and her soaked clothes fell through the sudden red-haired nature spirit to the ground even as Ryoga spun around looking for his now-vanished opponent. _Not again!_

Ryoga was glancing wildly around, then shook his fist and umbrella at the sky. “Ranma, you coward! Come back and fight!” he screamed.

Ranma saw red. “Who you calling a coward?” she shouted back. “Come on — if ya can’t beat a guy, let’s see if ya can do any better against a ... a nature spirit!”

“What? Who? Where are you?” a now totally confused Ryoga queried, trying to find the source of the unfamiliar voice. “Show yourself!”

“Wish I could, but I can’t,” Ranma replied, shifting so that Ryoga, turning to follow her voice, was facing away from the stadium. She did her best to ignore all of the suddenly next-to-naked girls in the crowd streaming out of the stadium, focusing on the next to naked boy in front of her. “I’m always invisible when this happens.”

“Fine, then try to hide from this!” Ryoga snarled, yanking bandana after bandana from around his forehead. He started them spinning and Ranma gasped as suddenly the bandanas seemed to glow ... and then Ryoga released them, sending spinning bandanas across an arc in her general direction. _Not good!_ she thought, frantically spinning so that she was parallel to the ground and kicking up at the bandana passing directly over her — and nodded as her foot knocked it up and away. _What I thought, I can hit it like that. And if I can hit it, it can hit me!_

Suddenly, the purple-haired girl Ranma had seen haunting the Tendo residence was standing between her and Ryoga, a chúi in each hand, snarling. “What crazy Strong Boy think he doing!?” she shouted. “You maybe kill son-in-law, other people, way you throwing discs around!” Even as Ryoga gaped the strange girl — what had Nabiki said her name was? Oh yes, Shampoo — attacked.

/\

Xian Pu charged forward, feinting toward Ryoga’s head with one chúi, then swinging the other hard at his side, only to have the feint effortlessly dodged and the other chúi knocked aside by the massive umbrella he still held. She kept her face closed and stern as she maneuvered around the boy that had been dueling with her son-in-law, away from the hand holding the umbrella. But it was hard, a bubble of pure joy threatening to burst out into a broad smile.

_Yes! This ‘Strong Boy’ isn’t as skilled as the Panda — Husband — or even Ranma, but he’s_ tough _, like nobody I’ve ever faced. I’m faster, I think, or would be at my best. But I’m not at my best, the lack of real practice and decent food is probably slowing me down. So Lost Boy actually has a chance to beat me! He_ has _to be better than the Panda. He can’t be worse._

_Still, no fudging — when the Elders ask if I did my best to win, I have to be able to say ‘yes’. And that means getting this over fast, he’d be able to outlast me even if I was at my best. So, charge in and see if I get the opening I need._

Continuing to maneuver as she ignored the shouts from her invisible son-in-law, Xian Pu glanced around quickly, then nodded as she focused again on her opponent. Slipping to the side and smiling inwardly as Ryoga followed her, she waited until the broken water fountain, still spraying high into the air, came between the two then charged, leaping through the fountaining water.

/\

“Hey, this is _my_ fight, you stay out of it!” Ranma shouted from where the busty succubus floated, invisible to almost everyone around and suddenly ignored by most of the crowd as students cleared a wide circle around Ryoga and his surprise opponent.

The nature spirit was starting to float forward toward the now circling pair, when she felt her arm grabbed. “Ranko, leave them to it!” Nabiki hissed.

“What?! Why?” Ranma asked, looking over at her fiancée, Akane beside her.

“Remember what I told you about how she’s attached to Ranma’s father?” the middle Tendo whispered. “Well, if his not-so-friend, here, is as good as he looks, he just might be able to solve her problem — and get her out of our hair at the same time. Things are complicated enough without martial artist Amazons from a Chinese backwater with weird laws adding themselves to the mix.”

“So then she’ll be chasin’ Ryoga ...” Ranma started, then a broad grin spread across her face. “Ya know, I think I can live with that. Maybe I should help her out.”

“Ranko, martial artists aren’t supposed to interfere in each other’s fights!” Akane asserted, glaring at the spot she thought Ranma occupied.

“Yeah, well, she already butted inta mine!” Ranma retorted, though her attempt to pull her arm out of her fiancée’s grasp was halfhearted.

Nabiki frowned thoughtfully as the three watched Ryoga and Xian Pu circle, then shook her head. “No, stay out of it,” she murmured. “We don’t know enough about how the Amazons’ laws work — you could make things even worse.”

Ranma thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. “I guess —” she started, then broke off as Xian Pu suddenly leaped forward.

/\

Ryoga stared intently at his surprise opponent, fighting the panic he felt rising as he took in the strange girl’s appearance, hair-style, facial features — in spite of the fact that he’d never seen her before in his life, she looked disturbingly familiar.

All at once he lost sight of the purple-haired girl as the water fountain Ranma had broken, his school uniform still lying scattered around in the spreading puddle, came between the two. He was stepping to the side to bring her back into view, when suddenly she came vaulting through the spraying water, chúi flashing even faster than the first time she’d closed. Ryoga spun to the side, taking him out of reach of one of the heavy weapons, but the girl had planned her attack well and he’d instinctively broken to the wrong side, his umbrella in the wrong hand, and he grunted as the chúi he hadn’t cleared grazed his side.

Taking advantage of the impact half-spinning him, his umbrella flashed around, and her attempt to duck and roll to avoid the half-sensed strike from behind wasn’t enough — the blow across her back sent her rolling across the grass to smash into a nearby tree. For a moment Ryoga stood frozen in place as the shocked crowd fell silent. Then he was racing forward, dropping to his knees beside the girl, carefully turning her onto her back. _Please,  not again!_ he prayed silently as he checked for a pulse, carefully probed for broken ribs.

Suddenly, her eyes fluttered, then opened to gaze up at him, blinking groggily, and she smiled. “You I love,” she whispered as one hand caught his shoulder and pulled herself up to press her lips against his for a brief moment before she again went limp, collapsing back to the ground underneath him.

Ryoga stared in stunned amazement. _Again?! What is it with these weird girls? Is everyone outside of Japan insane?!_ He again checked for a pulse, breathed a sigh of relief as he found one, watched her breath for a moment, then slowly rose to his feet. “Ranma, this is all your fault!” he shouted, glaring around, eyes passing over the invisible nature spirit. “If you hadn’t gone running off to China, she wouldn’t be lying here right now ... I wouldn’t have —” The Lost Boy broke off his shouting, took a deep breath, then added, “Your cowardice is responsible for this girl getting hurt, _you_ take care of her. And when I come back, we’ll finish this fight and if you haven’t helped her I’ll kill you!”

And with that, he spun on his heels, walked through the crowd, scattering students like a flock of geese, and was gone.

/\

Ranma watched from where she floated beside Nabiki and Akane as Ryoga finished his rant then stalked away. “Well, that was ... odd,” her fiancée murmured.

“Yeah, I wonder what he thinks I did ta him?” the nature spirit mused, then sighed. “C’mon, let’s check on ... what did ya say her name is, Shampoo?”

Nabiki nodded and the three started forward, when Ranma slammed to a stop as three massive life-glows sprang into existence off to the side. She whirled, barely aware of Nabiki whirling around beside her with a gasp, and the two stared at three ... were they human? They _felt_ human, but they were so small and wrinkled, like someone had shrunk whole bodies instead of just the heads like in that documentary he saw once, then animated the corpses. Ranma was so intensely focused on the three blazing powerhouses of life-glow that she barely noticed the six much younger women accompanying the three ... crones.

Akane stopped and turned after a few steps when she realized her sister wasn’t beside her. Turning around, she glanced at Nabiki, then followed her gaze to the group of three old ... women? ... and seven much younger ones approaching. She glanced briefly at the three in front, then examined the other seven closely, eyes narrowing. _Those_ seven moved like fighters. “Who’re they?” she asked, puzzled.

“I don’t know,” Nabiki replied. “But whatever you do, be polite to the three ancient ones — be _very_ polite.”

“Ya got _that_ right!” came Ranko’s soprano voice from empty air beside her, and Akane suppressed a reflexive flinch, then gazed more intently at the three shrunken crones in the front, trying to see what Nabiki and, apparently, Ranko saw in them. There was nothing she could see, outside of the sense of balance required to pogo along on staves like that. _Must be something magical,_ the youngest Tendo thought with a shiver.

As the group approached, the closest of the three crones glanced over toward them, then stared for a moment at the empty air where Ranko’s voice had come from before focusing again on the purple-haired girl lying against the tree she’d smashed into.

“Ranko, wait!” Nabiki suddenly hissed, just as the ten strangers came to an abrupt halt.

“Who are ya, and what do ya want with Shampoo?” came Ranko’s voice from a spot between the unconscious girl and the group, startling the seven younger women.

The crone that had first noticed Ranko replied, “I am Elder Ku Lon, and we are of the Joketsuzoku, as is Xian Pu. And what is it to a nature spirit what we wish with my great-granddaughter?”

“It’s a martial artist’s duty ta protect the weak and helpless,” Ranko responded instantly. “Wait, you can see me?!”

“Yes, child, I can, as can my fellow Elders,” Ku Lon replied with a chuckle.

“Uh ... did ya say yer great-granddaughter?”

“Yes, I did,” Ku Lon said. “We mean her no harm. Will you allow Pa Fum to examine her?”

“Uh, sure, but I’m gonna be watchin’ her.”

The youngest of the women, glancing nervously toward where Ranko’s voice was coming from, circled around the spot to kneel beside Xian Pu. She quickly checked the girl’s pulse, peeled back her eyelids, and carefully ran her hands along Xian Pu’s sides. For a moment, Akane almost thought she felt something ... odd, and shivered.

“Xian Pu has a concussion, and cracked ribs,” Pa Fum reported, her light-blue hair rippling as she wryly shook her head. “It’s easy to see why she’s the Champion — if that had been me, I’d have a broken back if I was lucky. I’ll bind her ribs, then we need to get her back to camp for a healing ritual.” She motioned one of the warriors over while slipping a backpack off her shoulders to pull out a roll of cloth, and the woman slowly moved around where Ranko’s voice had come from, then when no reaction came from Ranko knelt and carefully lifted Xian Pu to a sitting position and held her up while Pa Fum tore open Xian Pu’s top and wrapped her ribs securely.

“So, nature spirit, will you allow us to take my great-granddaughter back to our camp to tend to her wounds?” Ku Lon asked.

“Uh, yeah, I guess ...” came Ranko’s voice from next to the warrior holding Xian Pu.

The warrior jerked, then wilted slightly at Pa Fum’s glare. “Carefully!” the healer ordered. “Pick her up _carefully_! Let’s get her back to camp — slowly.”

Blushing with chagrin, the young woman carefully scooped Xian Pu up in her arms, and the ten women slowly walked through the crowd of students the way they’d come and away.


	8. Rite of Adulthood

In a secluded corner of a large city park beside a small grove of trees, Ku Lon patiently sat watching a chanting Pa Fum. The young healer had Xian Pu’s head in her lap with her hands gently placed against the Champion’s temples, the two girls surrounded by candles flickering in the light breeze, their familiar scent wafting over the elderly woman.

As she watched the up and coming healer performing the long-familiar ritual, her two fellow elders settled next to her, Lo Shun handing Ku Lon a bowl of stew. The two sat quietly for a time as Ku Lon ate her dinner. Finally, as Ku Lon laid aside the now empty bowl, Dao Paz spoke up in their native tongue. “Your great-granddaughter’s attempt to circumvent the laws governing the Kiss of Marriage does not speak well of her husband.” Glancing sideways at her centuries-long rival, she added, “That _is_ what she was attempting, of course.”

Ku Lon chuckled. “Now, you don’t really expect me to agree with that. Let us wait to hear Xian Pu’s explanation. She may well show promise as a future Elder.”

Lo Shun laughed softly, keeping it down to avoid disturbing the chanting healer. “Yes, splitting hairs, torturing logic, and ass-covering are all useful to a member of the Council. So, let’s see how well she does.”

The three fell silent. After a time, Ku Lon murmured, “You do have to admit that great-granddaughter’s original husband will have to be _very_ impressive to outshine the Wanderer. You did study our records on them before we left?”

The other two nodded. “Yes, I did,” Lo Shun said. “I must agree that they do make ideal Outsider husbands — around enough to provide fresh blood to the tribe and some training in the high quality of fighting skills they seem to always have, not around so much as to give our men ideas, and no need for a constant watch to keep them from running away.”

Dao Paz quirked an eyebrow at Ku Lon, which she studiously ignored. _No point in bringing up my hopes for the tribe, the circumstances aren’t close to right, yet. The world has changed a great deal in the last thirty years — especially the prices!_ She continued to watch the healing ritual, once again considering the irony that it was her rival that knew of her hopes and was at least keeping silent.

When it became clear Ku Lon wasn’t going to respond, Dao Paz added, “Of course, there’s the little fact that this particular Wanderer is already the husband of Pa Fum. That leaves Xian Pu with such an ... _interesting_ set of choices.”

Ku Lon winced, but reluctantly nodded. “True. Still, much will depend on what she reports once she wakes up. Until then, we have nothing but pointless speculation. Let us wait until then to continue this discussion, if it is even needed.”

Dao Paz shrugged, but fell silent.

/oOo\

It was late afternoon, when Xian Pu finally awoke to aching ribs and a dull headache.

“So, you’re awake. You’ve had quite a time since leaving the village.”

The teenager jerked upright at the sound of her great-grandmother’s voice, suppressing a wince at the twinges of pain her movements caused. “Great-grandmother!” Looking over, she froze at the sight of the three Elders sitting nearby. “Ah ... I mean ‘Honored Elders’,” she hastily corrected, bowing from where she sat. “Yes, I have much to report.”

“The young, always so hasty — eat, first,” her great-grandmother’s long-time rival said, handing her some travel rations. “ _Then_ you can tell us all about it.”

/\

“However, even with the cover provided by the spray of water, he was too fast and I was unable to avoid his counterstrike — he had truly defeated me. I managed to hold onto consciousness long enough to give him the Kiss of Marriage, but only just,” Xian Pu said. Her report concluded, she carefully kept herself from tensing up. _Please, let them accept this!_ she prayed silently as she waited for the Elders’ verdict. Her great-grandmother’s she was sure of, but it would take the agreement of all three to disavow her first husband for her second.

Lo Shun gazed sternly at the young warrior from where she sat between her two fellow Elders. “So, you chose to intervene in the duel between Ryoga and your _very_ interesting son-in-law because Ryoga’s reckless attacks were endangering not just Ranma but also his wife and sister-in-law?”

“Yes, Honored Elder,” Xian Pu replied. “The way one of the disks he threw altered its course probably showed that they could affect son-in-law, and while the other two were not within the arc of the first ones thrown, with Ranma invisible there was no telling in what direction he would throw them next.”

The three Elders exchanged glances. “I must agree that this Ryoga is a more promising candidate than Genma,” Dao Paz finally said. “Not as skilled, perhaps, but that is actually a good thing given the circumstances. And if we did try to capture and hold the Panda I would not want to have to deal with a nature spirit of an unknown type that is also a highly skilled fighter that most of our warriors cannot even see.” Then, before Xian Pu had a chance to slump in relief, she added, “Still, do you swear on your honor as warrior and Champion that you did your best to overcome Ryoga?”

Without hesitation, Xian Pu replied, “Yes, Honored Elder, I so swear.

Dao Paz gazed at her for a long moment, then to the teenager’s surprise began to chuckle. “Yes, definitely a possible future Elder, here,” the old woman said, glancing across at her eternal rival. “Very well, I will vote in favor of disavowing the Kiss given to Genma in favor of Ryoga’s — if she still wants us to after you explain the complication.”

“Complication?” Xian Pu asked, looking in confusion at her great-grandmother.

Ku Lon sighed. “Yes, a complication. You see, Xian Pu, this isn’t the first time that this Wanderer has crossed paths with the Amazons. Shortly after you left on your husband hunt, he wandered into the village. Pa Fum thought he was threatening a group of children and attacked.”

Xian Pu blanched. “ _Pa Fum_? But ... but she ...”

“Is hopeless in a serious fight, yes — not too bad when it comes to sparring, but simply unable to bring herself to inflict serious injury.” Ku Lon shrugged. “The result is that this Ryoga already has an Amazon wife but hasn’t yet consummated the relationship. Since the three Elders sitting in judgment are willing to allow you to choose Ryoga as your husband rather than Genma ...” She quickly glanced at the other two Elders, and both nodded, “ ... you have three choices: stay with the Panda; duel Pa Fum for her husband; or, if she is willing, accept the position of Second Wife under her.”

Xian Pu simply stared while her mind raced. _Okay, staying with the Panda is flat out. But Pa Fum — fighting a duel with her would be like assaulting a child! And I wouldn’t be able to hold back, either, there’s no way the Elders would simply accept a bloody nose as proof she’d been beaten. But if I accept Second Wife status, any future chance of joining the Council would be gone, only if Pa Fum joined it would we be able to exercise a joint position on the Council with hers the deciding vote if we disagree. And as shy as she is ..._

Face troubled, she opened her mouth to respond — and belatedly noticed Ku Lon’s subtle signal. Without a break, she bowed even as she asked, “Honored Elders, may I have some time to consider this? Whichever I choose, the impact will affect my entire life.”

Dao Paz glanced at a nonchalant Ku Lon, then shook her head bemusedly. “Of course you may. But not for too long, it might be taken as an attempt to delay a decision.”

/\

“Great-grandmother, why did you signal that you wished to speak to me before I chose?” a confused Xian Pu asked as soon as the two were alone.

Ku Lon glanced around, then closed her eyes for a long moment. Opening them, she replied, “Because, child you were about to state your willingness to challenge Pa Fum to a duel. True?”

“I ... yes, of course, it is the only real option ... isn’t it?” Xian Pu responded, her confusion deepening. Surely Great-grandmother didn’t want her to stay with Genma?!

Ku Lon was silent for a time, then sighed. “Child — Xian Pu — I know it is a great sacrifice, but I would ask you to consider becoming Second Wife to Pa Fum.”

Xian Pu stared at the shrunken old woman, stunned. “I ... but ... you ... but _why_? Am I really such a poor prospect for the Council that I should throw away all chance of joining it? Great-grandmother, I know I’m young and inexperienced, but I’ll learn, get better, however I’ve disappointed you, just tell me —”

Ku Lon hastily lifted a hand, and Xian Pu’s flow of word cut off. “No, Xian Pu, you have not disappointed me, just the opposite. You are the youngest Champion in centuries, and the way you’ve carried out your husband hunt has shown both your honor and your intelligence.

“No, what causes me to ask you to consider this is _Pa Fum’s_ quality.” Ku Lon turned to gaze at the afternoon shadows stretching across the park. “The truth is, child, that Pa Fum has something that the Council needs, and badly — a stubborn gentleness, an instinctive urge to peace that few warriors have and that we are going to need in the years ahead as the world continues to get smaller. But can you see Pa Fum putting herself forward, seeking a seat on the Council?”

Xian Pu laughed, shaking her head. “Not a chance! There isn’t a more shy, retiring woman in the village.”

“Well, so long as you don’t threaten children or interfere with her treatment of a patient,” Ku Lon amended, “or we wouldn’t be talking about this right now. But if you become her Second Wife — no one is going to think it is because of the usual reasons for such: that you are seeking to rise to power in her trail, or a lesbian seeking to shirk her duty to the tribe. And there will be many who accept — even wish for — your leadership, even as a Second Wife.”

“But they will only be able to do so through Pa Fum,” Xian Pu continued thoughtfully. “By our traditions, I can only do so if she is a part of it, even taking the lead.” Ku Lon silently nodded, and her great-granddaughter rose smoothly to her feet, wincing only slightly at how the motion awoke her slowly fading headache. “Thank you for your advice, Honored Elder,” she said quietly, bowing to the diminutive ancient. “I will consider it.” And with that she turned and walked into the small grove of trees beside the camp.

/oOo\

Pa Fum glanced up as Xian Pu stepped up beside where she was sitting, watching the light fade with the gathering dusk, the last remnants of the sunset losing their luster. “How are you feeling?” she asked. “Any unusual twinges, unexpected pain?”

“No, nothing unusual, and what there is, is fading, as usual for your work,” Xian Pu assured her as she dropped down to sit beside the healer, and the two watched the approaching night together in silence.

“This has always been my favorite part of the day,” Pa Fum finally said in a voice almost too quiet to be heard. “When, barring some accident, all work is finished or put off for another day, and everything goes soft and muted, and it sometimes seems as if in the haziness anything is possible.”

Xian Pu chuckled.  She leaned back and gazed up as what stars could be seen through the light pollution began to twinkle. “For me, this is a dangerous time, when warriors are tired from the day’s exertions, thinking of their bedrolls ... careless. The only time more dangerous is pre-dawn. But for all that, it _is_ beautiful,” she admitted.

The two again fell silent for a time, listening to the nighttime insects beginning their serenade. “I expected you to seek me out hours ago,” Pa Fum eventually said, a questioning lilt to her voice.

“I had to collect my own gear and bring it here. Besides, I had a lot to think about,” Xian Pu responded with a sigh, sitting up and instinctively feeling to make sure her chúi were still beside her.

Pa Fum glanced at the dark shape sitting beside her. “I know I’m everyone’s favorite helpless child to be protected at all costs,” she said, Xian Pu wincing slightly at the touch of bitterness in her voice, “but was it really that hard to tell me that you need to beat me like a drum? It’s not a problem, really — once I found myself with a husband I did some deeper research into our laws, so I knew it was coming as soon I saw who you were fighting. And while Rwo An may not be my equal as a healer I’m sure he could handle any wounds you might have to inflict on me.”

Xian Pu shook her head. “No, it wasn’t that — if it had simply been reluctance to hurt you, the duel would already be done with and you’d be without a husband. No, it’s ... Pa Fum, would you consider taking me as Second Wife?”

Pa Fum whipped around to stare at Xian Pu. “What!? _Why_? You never struck me as leaning that way, and as for using my increasing authority to advance your own, the idea’s ludicrous! _What_ increasing authority?”

Xian Pu laughed, shaking her head. “No, I don’t lean that way. Not that an occasional girl can’t be fun, but don’t you think it’s all foreplay without the main event?”

“Uh ...” Pa Fum instinctively turned her head, eyes dropping, to hide the blush that Xian Pu couldn’t see in the darkness, anyway.

“Oh. You don’t know, do you?” Xian Pu said quietly in sudden realization. “You aren’t a virgin, are you? I know you’re shy, but surely there’ve been at least a few men you’ve been attracted to enough to proposition?”

“I ... no, but ... there have been a few men that have taken mercy on me, and offered. They were kind, gentle, I enjoyed it, but what man in the tribe would want a weakling like me for anything but an occasional bedmate?”

Xian Pu stiffened at the self-loathing that came through Pa Fum’s last statement. _You really mean that, don’t you? I wonder how many of those men wanted to become your husband but couldn’t get the message through to you. Well, probably too late now._ She reached out to lay a gentle hand on the healer’s shoulder. “No, Pa Fum, you may be no kind of warrior, but you are no weakling. I don’t think so, and neither does my great-grandmother — if she did, she wouldn’t have suggested that I seek to become your Second Wife instead of challenging you for your husband.”

Pa Fum stiffened in shock, staring again at her younger companion. “ _Elder Ku Lon_ suggested that?” she asked in amazement.

Xian Pu nodded. “She did. She says you have an ... ‘an instinctive gentleness and urge to peace’ is how she described it, that we are going to need badly as a voice on the Council. And with me as your Second Wife, you’ll get the support you need to eventually get us that joint seat.”

“I ... do you really mean it? She really said that? You aren’t just being nice to the poor girl that can’t muster the courage to get anything for herself?”

Xian Pu laughed softly. “No, we’re not just ‘being nice’. Surely you’ve heard comments on how ambitious I am?” Pa Fum nodded stiffly. “Well, the comments are true — I’m the youngest Champion in generations, and until now intended to eventually be the youngest Elder. I may be willing to abandon that dream, take a secondary role, for the good of the tribe, but just to ‘be nice’? Not a chance.”

Pa Fum looked away, staring out over the nighttime park. Finally, she murmured, “You know that as Second Wife you’ll be expected to share my bed and ... and see to my needs?”

“Of course,” Xian Pu responded instantly, her shrug unseen by her companion. “That’s no hardship — you’re hardly going to be a demanding, overbearing First Wife, and I have no problem with foreplay at all. And I suspect our husband will be ‘main event’ enough for both of us.”

“When he’s around, assuming we can hold him somehow,” Pa Fum commented drily.

“What? Why wouldn’t he be around?” a now confused Xian Pu asked.

“Because he’s a Wanderer,” Pa Fum replied. “Do you know anything about them?” Turning to see Xian Pu shake her head in the dim light of the night, the healer continued, “Neither did I, before I found myself married to one. Very well, for the good of the Joketsuzoku, if we can find and keep this man for our husband, I will accept you as Second Wife. Let’s go announce our decision to the Elders, then I’ll tell you about the husband hunt we’ve set ourselves.”

Even as she agreed, Pa Fum found herself beginning to shake as just what her decision meant for her future, her voice quavering at the end. Xian Pu glanced up sharply at that, then reached over and pulled the older woman into a hug. “That can wait until morning. Let’s get to sleep — just sleep,” she quickly added as she felt Pa Fum stiffen. “Even if I didn’t still ache, I think we should wait for more until we capture our husband.”

At that, Pa Fum relaxed again. “Thank you,” she whispered softly. Then her own arm went around Xian Pu’s waist, and the two sat silently for a time listening to the night sounds of Tokyo before rising together to walk hand in hand toward the camp and Pa Fum’s tent.


	9. On Winged Flight

Nabiki collapsed back onto her bed, her nude body covered with sweat and her jaws clenched against the need to scream out the orgasm still echoing through her. Slowly, she relaxed, gasping for air as her fiery-maned lover lifted up from between her spread legs and floated up along her quivering body, a wide smile across her face. The nature spirit’s face dipped, and her lips gently touched Nabiki’s. Nabiki’s lips parted and her tongue slipped out to slide along and around those lips, savoring the taste of her own juices coating her lover's face.

After a moment, Ranma floated down to circle her arms around her fiancée, one arm under Nabiki’s heaving breasts and the other passing through the bed to press against her back, while her head rested on Nabiki’s shoulder. Nabiki got her breathing under control, and reached over to pull the top sheet and blanket over her, shivering slightly as her sweat cooled and evaporated.

“I think I like this way of feeding most,” Ranma murmured after a moment. “Ya certainly enjoy it more.”

“True,” Nabiki agreed with a weary chuckle. “And that means you get more out of it, so we both win.”

“Not really,” Ranma said. “Between Kasumi’s meals and our feeding sessions, I’m usually pretty full up, not much room for more. But yeah, if you win, I win.”

“Do you think that’s why you haven’t been as wiped out by the energy overload, lately?” Nabiki asked curiously, and felt Ranma’s slight shrug.

“I dunno,” the redhead replied. “Could be that, or it could be I’m just gettin’ used ta it.”

The two fell silent for a time, then as Nabiki felt herself slipping into sleep, Ranma said, “Nabiki, what’s been botherin’ ya lately? You’ve been keyed up — tight, nervous, even scared. Are ya that afraid of how Pop’s gonna react when Mom shows up tomorrow? Ya don’t need ta worry, I won’t let him do anything to ya.”

“I know, Ranma, with you around I have nothing to worry about there,” Nabiki murmured, turning her head to lightly kiss the top of Ranma’s head. The redhead shivered slightly, almost purring at the feeling of love and gratitude she was drinking in. “No, it isn’t that,” Nabiki continued. “It isn’t anything I can talk about just yet.” She fell silent for a few moments, then said, “Ranma, will you marry me?”

Ranma lifted her head to look down at her fiancée, a confused expression on her face. “Of course I’m gonna marry you, you’re my fiancée. What kinda question is that?”

“An important one,” Nabiki answered. “After we were told of the agreement to join the families, I know you agreed to fulfill it with me, but I’ve been thinking lately that that’s a pretty stupid reason to marry someone. I love you, and I know you love me, but that doesn’t mean we have to get married. If you’d rather keep it like this —”

“No!” Ranma interrupted. “I’m not my Dad, I’m not just gonna mooch offa you as a ... a food source. I’m gonna be yer husband, and see to it ya don’t lack for anything, and we’ll have a family, and everything!”

Nabiki lifted a hand to wipe at suddenly teary eyes even as she firmly stomped on the beginning of a spurt of fear. Reaching up, she pulled Ranma’s head back down to her shoulder. “Thank you,” she whispered. “That means a lot to me. And Ranma, the same goes for me — whatever happens, you’re mine. You aren’t getting away from me.”

“Ya got it,” Ranma replied firmly, “You’re my wife, and I’m gonna be yer husband.” After a moment, she added, “But that doesn’t mean we gotta rush out and get married tomorrow.”

Nabiki chuckled lightly at the mix of love, eagerness and worry washing over her. “Yeah, I think we can at least wait until I finish high school.”

“Good,” Ranma said as she felt Nabiki slipping toward sleep, pulling her along in her wake. “See ya in yer dreams.”

/oOo\

Nodoka staggered slightly as she finished yet another kata, dripping sweat and every muscle aching. Lowering her bokken, she wiped at her face with one hand, then sighed as she walked over to put the bokken in its holder on the wall.

Walking into the bathroom and stripping out of her sweat-sodden workout clothes, she examined her lithe, smoothly muscled nude body in a full-length mirror with approval as she briefly considered a late-night visit to a bathhouse before settling on a hot shower for her over-stressed muscles and then to bed and hopefully, after the long training, sleep.

_Finally, I get to move in with the Tendos, make Ranma a part of my life, truly get to know him after all these years!_ she exulted as she stepped into the steaming shower and began to lather up, then chuckled to herself. _‘Finally’! It’s only been a few weeks since he returned to you...._ But it had seemed so long, each day endless, waiting, hoping for a call from him or Nabiki, trying to think of a reason to call her son’s fiancée, living for the weekend like she’d never done since starting her career to make ends meet. But tomorrow, that would be at an end.

_And I’ll finally get some answers from my former husband,_ she thought grimly, mood darkening as she thought again of the years of silence, except for visits from the police and the people Genma had cheated, then jumped slightly as the bar of soap shot out of her tightening grip and bounced off the wall. Chuckling to herself, she shook her head as she knelt to pick up the soap. _Relax, Nodoka, Genma is no longer your husband, and whatever happened in the past, Ranma is back. Be happy with that._ She washed off the soap then simply stood in place as the heat seeped into her aching muscles, again relaxing as her mind returned to the handsome raven-haired young man her baby had become (and the cute redheaded succubus he sometimes became, and she firmly squelched speculation on how useful her daughter could be in her side job, once again telling herself to let her son/daughter finish growing up, first). Finding herself yawning, she smiled. _And it looks like you’ll actually get some sleep tonight, after all._

/oOo\

_The next day:_

Akane frowned as she walked over and picked up the towel lying against the dojo wall and wiped the sweat off her face. The morning training under her sensei had been going as usual; certainly she hadn’t come close to tagging Ranma. She never did, and now didn’t expect that to change any time soon (though she’d never admit it). And truthfully, now that she knew just _how_ Ranma had become so good at the Art she didn’t want to — not if the kind of abuse his father had put him through was what she’d need to face.

Still, even if he was completely out of her league, he’d been ... distracted ... all morning. Not so much as to give her an opening, but still obvious to anyone that sparred with him regularly.

“All right, Ranma, what’s been bothering you today?” she growled as she draped the towel around her neck.

“ ‘Sensei’, while we’re in the dojo,” Ranma said, frowning.

Akane shook her head. “This doesn’t have anything to do with training or fighting, so ‘Ranma’ it is. So what have you been thinking about instead of my training?”

Ranma opened his mouth to deny the accusation, then paused and finally shrugged — she was right. “It’s Mom,” he said. “She’s coming today. I’m thinkin’ about how Pop is gonna take it.”

“Your mom’s coming here!? _Today?_ ” Akane almost shrieked. “Why now!? And why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know why now; Nabiki thought it was a good idea, and that’s enough for me,” Ranma said nonchalantly. “And fer why we didn’t tell you ... Akane, ya tend ta blurt things out when ya get angry, and ya get angry at Pop a lot.” The pigtailed boy shrugged again. “I don’t blame ya fer that, he’s a piece a’ work, but that doesn’t change how ya act.”

“And it doesn’t matter now, anyway,” came Nabiki’s voice from where she was leaning against the dojo’s doorframe. Holding up her cellphone, she continued, “She just called me — she’s gotten off the train and is walking here now. She’ll be here in a few minutes.”

Ranma jerked around at the sound of his fiancée’s voice. Then her words registered, and a hard grin broke across his face. “Great! Where’s Pop?”

“In the family room playing shogi with Father.”

“Good,” Ranma replied. “I’m gonna get around so I’m in the yard on that side a’ the house. That way, when Pop sees Mom walk through the door an’ uses the Saotome Final Technique I’ll be in the way.”

“Saotome Final Technique?” Akane asked as both sisters looked at Ranma curiously. “I don’t think you’ve taught me that one.”

“Well ... no, I haven’t, I wasn’t sure how you’d take it,” Ranma admitted, reaching up to rub his neck behind his pigtail. “Basically, Pop says ... when you find yourself in a no-win situation ... you run away.”

The girls stared, then Akane broke out laughing. “Oh, yes, the big, tough, I-can-beat-anyone Ranma, and you run away!” she chortled.

“Yes, you run away!” Ranma growled. “When the fight’s lost, there’s no point in stickin’ around an’ takin’ a beatin’ fer nothin’ — ya buy time ta think, figure out how ta come back an’ _win_.”

Nabiki nodded, one eyebrow lifting in surprise. “That’s a surprisingly pragmatic rule, I like it,” she said, then glared at the still-laughing Akane. “And little sis, before you get too high and mighty, ask yourself what you would have done if you had a choice between closing to the Hentai Horde or running away. Would you have really stayed around to get beaten and maybe raped?”

The blood drained from Akane’s face and she swayed, her laughter cut off as if Nabiki had flipped a switch. Ranma stepped over to steady her as he shot a hard look at Nabiki. “That was a bit harsh, Nabiki,” he growled.

Nabiki closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then her shoulders slumped and she walked over to pull Akane into a hug. “Your sensei is right, that was over the top,” she admitted, wincing at the feeling of shivers running through the younger girl’s body. Then, pushing herself back with her hands on Akane’s shoulders, she added, “I’m sure Ranma has no problem thinking of things he’d fight to the death for, but just for honor? No, that’s one thing ‘Uncle’ Saotome got right.”

She held her gaze fixed on Akane’s face until the younger girl nodded, then glanced over at Ranma. “The technique might be fine, but not this time. Get moving, your mother will be here any minute.” Ranma nodded and dashed out of the dojo, and Nabiki turned back to Akane and gave her a grin worthy of any shark. “Come on, let’s go enjoy the show.”

/\

Genma sighed as he gazed down at the shogi board; his mind wasn’t on the game, and his desperate position on the board reflected that fact. He glanced about out of the corners of his eyes, looking for something — anything — that might distract his old friend for the brief moment needed for some creative adjustments, but nothing came up, and he sighed louder. “A good game, Soun. Shall we play another?”

“Of course!” the muscular, mustached man sitting across the board instantly agreed.

As the two began setting up the board for another game, Genma found his thoughts again drifting to his son — and his son’s fiancée. He had known there was going to be trouble within minutes of meeting that girl. She was more than smart, she was clever, just the kind of woman that he had avoided at all costs over the years — the kind that saw right through his act, impossible to fool, and ready to deal out pain if he tried. _Why couldn’t Ranma have latched onto Kasumi?_ Genma thought despairingly once more. _She’s gentle, submissive, knows her place, and the girl can_ cook _! Even Akane would have been better — that girl has a temper, but lets it control her and lacks the skill to match Ranma even if she kept in control. There’s no way Ranma would let her henpeck him._

But Ranma _hadn’t_ chosen either the youngest or the oldest of the sisters, instead latching onto the middle Tendo as if he’d known her all his life, and for some reason that cold, angry girl had gone along with it. _Probably wants some muscle to protect her in case anything goes wrong,_ the balding martial artist thought bitterly, _and now I’ll have to fight to get my son out of her clutches and listening to his father again._   Not that Ranma had been doing all that much listening lately, even before they’d arrived at the dojo.

The elder Saotome had been so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn’t heard the sound of someone at the front door, or even the approaching footsteps of a small crowd, so the first warning was Kasumi’s excited voice: “Oh, my! Father, Uncle Genma, we have a guest.”

Looking up, Genma froze as he felt his heart turn over at the sight of the woman carrying a cloth-wrapped sword-length bundle standing beside the eldest Tendo daughter carrying a tray for tea. She had ... changed, over the past almost ten years, faint lines around her eyes that hadn’t been there before, hair perhaps faded a bit. But he couldn’t remember the sleek muscles revealed by the short-sleeved blouse and knee-length skirt she wore, nor the self-confidence her body language fairly shouted — nor the cold stare fixed on him like a limpet. Nodoka. _Ranma’s not ready, and she knows it!_ the bit of his mind not stunned by shock wailed. Genma took a deep breath, then rose and whirled in a single motion and dashed for the yard, only to fold over as a fist slammed into his gut.

Ranma stepped away from the outside wall. “Runnin’ away again, Pop? Not this time. Get back —” Ranma’s demand ended in a squawk as Genma spun, kicked his son’s feet out from under him, then caught the falling boy with feet and hands to lift him up and over and toss him into the koi pond. The self-appointed master of the Saotome School might have been lazy outside of the Art, but the truth was that, so far as skill was concerned, his master status was deserved — he’d long since realized that Ranma’s spirit form was nimble enough, but slow. Even as Ranma’s shout turned into an uncomfortably feminine shriek (a fact he once again unconsciously ignored), he sprang to his feet, dashed for the wall, and bounded up and over. Racing across the street, he leaped up to the roof of the nearest one-story building then roof-hopped away as quickly as he could. It was going to take some serious thinking to come up with a way out of _this_ mess.

/\

The suddenly red-haired Ranma shot out of the water and looked around frantically even as her father ran for the wall. _Hot water, dammit, where’s — !_ There, on the tray Kasumi was holding, but in the wrong direction — by the time the succubus turned human and got dressed, Genma would be well out of sight.

Instead, Ranma headed skyward. As soon as she cleared the roofs of the houses across the street she searched and — yes! There was her father, already a block away and gaining distance. The nature spirit set off after him at her best speed even as she climbed higher, hoping to keep him in sight as he pulled away from her. _This isn’t gonna work!_ she thought despairingly even as she clawed for altitude. _Either he’s gonna get lost in the clutter or I’ll hafta climb so high he’ll be too small ta see or he’ll have an attack of brains and drop ta street level and get lost in the maze. I hafta go faster!_

Again, Ranma pushed for more speed, struggling to force her way through the wall that she’d found just after she’d first fallen in the spring at Jusenkyo and had been unable to break through ever since. In the weeks since then she’d never seemed to get tired when in this form, no matter how long she practiced her Art, but neither could she seem to push herself for the little bit of extra effort that could make a difference in a fight. And now that lack was going to cost her, she’d never get the answers she and her mom wanted so badly. Gritting her teeth, Ranma threw every ounce of willpower she had at forcing her limits.

Suddenly, Ranma faltered as she felt the strangest sensation run along her back and shoulder blades, a hot shifting, as if her back muscles were twisting and reshaping like the taffy pulling machine he’d once seen. As quickly it came the weird feeling was gone, and a grin spread across her face as suddenly she was swooping down toward the bouncing Genma at a speed she’d never imagined. “Woohoo!!!”

At her shout of glee, Genma jerked and whipped around, looking wildly in all directions but up (not that it would have helped him), and Ranma’s grin grew wider — here she was approaching fast, and Genma couldn’t see her! Approaching _really_ fast. _Oh, crap, this is gonna hurt...._ And with a tackle to do any rugby player proud, she smashed into her father’s chest. Her new red bat-like wings wrapped around them, thanks to her momentum, as the collision knocked Genma off the roof. Ranma’s sole thought as they plummeted toward the ground was, _Wings?! Where’d_ they _come from?!_

/\

Genma twisted as he and his son plummeted toward the ground below, grabbing blindly at the invisible body pressed against him even as Ranma pushed away. His hands made contact, one hand grasping something that felt like skin-covered bone much too thin to be human and the other squeezing hard on something too soft to be muscle, eliciting a high-pitched shriek of outrage from his boy ... Genma’s eyes widened as he stiffened in shock. _No, it can’t —_ And Ranma pushed herself out of his grip and away even as he smashed back first onto the lawn.

As Genma desperately fought to pull air back into his lungs, Ranma’s voice came from empty air — now that Genma was finally accepting reality, an obviously feminine voice. “Ya might as well give it up, Pop — ya can’t outfight me like this, and now ya can’t outrun me.”

Coughing as his lungs refilled, Genma gasped out, “Ranma, y-y-you’re a girl!”

“Finally figure it out, did ya? Yeah, well, so are you when you’re a panda, so what?”

Genma’s eyes flashed over the ambush he’d suffered when leaving the Tendo compound with a sudden sick feeling that had nothing to do with his fall — Ranma had known about No-chan’s coming before she arrived. “Does your mother know?” he asked faintly as he sat up.

“Yeah, she does,” the disembodied voice responded. “Now come on, let’s get back.” Invisible arms slipped under Genma’s arms and suddenly he found himself lifted from the ground to soar up above the houses he had just been running over.

Forcing himself to ignore the obvious source of the two points of pressure against his back as Ranma flew them back toward the dojo, the balding master closed his eyes and thought furiously. _Okay, No-chan knows about the curse — knows more than I do, apparently — and she hasn’t handed him a tanto, yet. That means she must not have inquired too deeply into his sex life and found out it’s nonexistent. So, there’s still a chance, if I can convince her that our stay at the dojo was simply to give Ranma an opportunity to get to know his fiancée before we start a quest for a cure. Then Ranma and I can head out to get it fixed, and get him laid, and a cure for the Cat Fist ..._ Genma’s thoughts faltered, then firmed. _Okay, so we probably will never be able to go home, or even return to the Tendos — at least Ranma will live, which he won’t if No-chan tells him about the seppuku contract and demands he fulfill it. Where the boy got that over-developed sense of honor ..._

Opening his eyes, the middle-aged master took a deep breath as he watched the Tendo compound rapidly rise toward them. _Showtime._


	10. The Cost of Living High

Ranma frowned in confusion as she descended with her burden toward the yard by the koi pond. She had gotten a lot of practice with her empathic sense over the past several weeks, had striven to sort out the various ‘tastes’ and figure out what they meant. In truth, she had done a fairly decent job, considering the short time and her limited social experience — the long talks she’d had with her fiancée had helped a great deal. But like every empath before her, she was rapidly learning that knowing how someone _felt_ was not the same as knowing what someone _thought_ , and the emotional mix she’d been picking up from her father made no sense to her — shock at learning her sex when she changed, she understood, but despair? Panic? To be replaced by determination, with love mixed throughout? (And it _was_ love, even if it was thankfully without the sexual overtones that Ranma had come to enjoy picking up from Nabiki.) The busty red-winged succubus was now regretting how much she’d been avoiding her father while in her cursed form — she was beginning to think that she didn’t understand him at all.

Remembering her earlier collision with her father, she slowed as the ground approached, and Genma landed with a soft grunt, his knees flexing slightly to absorb the impact. Nabiki and Akane stepped out from the family room to meet them. Akane was glaring at Genma, but Nabiki’s gaze was fixed on her fiancé, eyes widening. “Wings, now?” she asked. “When did that happen?”

“Just now, when I really needed ‘em,” Ranma replied with a shrug. At the sound of her voice, Akane glanced toward the girl she couldn’t see then back to Genma. “C’mon, Pop, time ta pay the piper,” Ranma continued.

Genma nodded, took a deep breath, and walked back into the room he’d left so abruptly, only to freeze at the tableau before him. Nodoka was kneeling behind the low table, the formerly bundled-up Saotome honor blade lying unsheathed on the tabletop before her, her expression stiff and cold. Kasumi was kneeling to the side, calmly sipping from a cup of tea, while Soun was behind her kneeling by the wall, tears running down his face. Akane stepped past Genma and walked over to stand by her father, while Nabiki walked around Genma’s other side to kneel across the table from her sister.

Ranma, floating just out of arm’s reach behind and above her father, looked over the room and grinned. _Mom an’ Nabs sure know how ta stage a show,_ she thought even as she did her best to ignore the cold anger radiating from her mother and the two older Tendo sisters, so overwhelming it was actually washing out the emotions of the other three people in the room. “Don’t keep everyone waiting, Pop,” she ordered.

Genma started, then slowly walked forward to kneel a little away from the table. For several endless minutes, Nodoka simply gazed coldly at her former husband. Finally, she said in a voice like liquid nitrogen, “So, we finally meet again, nine years later than your promised return. What pitiful excuse do you have for the way you have betrayed your son, and me?”

Instantly, Genma was bent over, hands on the floor and bowing repeatedly. “No-chan I didn’t know Jusenkyo was so dangerous we are seeking a cure I just wished to let Ranma know of his fiancées we will leave on a quest for a cure immediately....”

Everyone in the room stared at the spectacle in stunned amazement, even Soun breaking off his crying in shock. Finally, Nodoka asked, “What on earth are you babbling about?”

Genma broke off his stream of excuses and plans to look up. “You ... you aren’t angry about Jusenkyo — Ranma’s cursed form, No-chan? I thought — the contract —”

“Don’t call me that!” Nodoka snarled. “And I don’t care about the contract! I tore it up after the endless stream of fathers looking for their daughters’ fiancé began showing up on my doorstep, along with police investigators wondering if I had any knowledge of your whereabouts.”

Genma paled. “You ... you know ...” he stammered.

“Yes, I know all about those poor girls you defrauded, and so many others — I had to go to work to help make restitution for your crimes all these years. _Why_ , Genma?” she asked, her voice filled with pain. “You _hated_ your master, why did you return to his ways? Why did you stop drawing from our bank account? Why did you deprive me of my son’s company all these years? And whatever possessed you to throw our son into a pit full of starving cats?”

“Yeah, I’d like ta know the answer ta that one, myself,” Ranma growled, then floated down behind her mother, wrapping her arms around the grieving woman and resting her chin on her shoulder. Nodoka reached up a hand to gently stroke her daughter’s cheek in thanks as she drew in a shuddering breath and forced herself to relax.

“I ... I ... You tore up ... But I ...” Genma stuttered, then sighed and sat up straight. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, he softly said, “Nodoka, I had such dreams for Ranma, for us, training him in the Arts, to see the day that he would surpass even me, of how proud you would be seeing him growing in strength and skill year after year. And then I found the old manual describing the Cat Fist. It was extreme, it hurt so much to go through with it, but the promise to make Ranma an unstoppable warrior overcame my doubts and fears. Only after he came out of the pit acting like a cat and nearly killed me with the ki claws the technique gave him, did I reread the manual and find that the last two pages were stuck together, learn once I read the final pages that the Cat Fist drove the children subjected to it insane, how _lucky_ Ranma is that he only occasionally thinks he’s a cat instead of permanently.

“After that, how could we come home? At first, Ranma was covered with scars from the cats. I could have explained those scars away, along with his fear of housecats, but you would have thought — what kind of man is afraid of kittens? You would have despised him! I thought, if I could make him manly sexually once he matured, that would make up the difference and we could be reunited. But he refused to have anything to do with the girls I tried to set him up with, there was no way you would have considered him manly, and with the contract — Ranma didn’t fail me in his sense of honor, I’m so _proud_ of him, but when you handed him a tanto he would have used it and I would have nothing left, all gone, alone again....”

Genma’s voice trailed off, tears running down his cheeks, and the room was silent as Ranma, Nodoka and the Tendos stared at the balding martial artist. The anger radiating from Nodoka, Kasumi and Nabiki had dimmed, and it was all Ranma could do not to shudder from the remorse and loathing coming from his father, loathing that seemed to be directed inward rather than at any outside target — and the same remorse and self-loathing was pouring from her mother. “Mother, what’s wrong?” she whispered in Nodoka’s ear.

“Ranma, I —” Nodoka started, then broke off. “Let go, dearest,” she said, and stood when her confused daughter obeyed. “Nabiki, Ranma, come with me, please,” she said, and looked down at her former husband. “Genma, if you wish to have anything to do with your son in the future, you will be here when we return.” Genma nodded without a word, and Nodoka swept from the room, followed by her daughter and her fiancée.

/\

Nodoka lead the two girls, human and nature spirit, into the kitchen. Turning as soon as they entered, she pulled her currently daughter into a hug, one arm across Ranma’s back beneath the wings and her other hand pulling Ranma’s head against her shoulder. “Oh Ranma, I’m so sorry, if I hadn’t been such a romantic fool,” she sobbed. “I should have never agreed to that stupid contract, can you ever forgive me?”

“Contract? I ... sure Mom, whatever ya did I’m sure ya meant well,” a confused Ranma managed to get out through the fear and pain hammering at her, doing her best to ignore the feeling of the soft skin of her mother’s breasts pressed against her own through the light blouse and bra her mother wore.

“Of course, you don’t know,” Nodoka said with a sigh. Releasing Ranma she stepped back and took a deep breath. “Ranma, when your father first announced his plans for the training trip ...”

When Nodoka finished her story a few minutes later, she stood with her head down, staring at the floor. “If neither of you want anything to do with me —” she said, only to gasp when Ranma’s arms circled her again.

“A’ course we still want ya around. So ya did somethin’ stupid, who hasn’t?” Ranma said, looking at her fiancée. “Right, Nabs?”

“ ‘Nabs’?” Nabiki asked, rolling her eyes, then with a sigh walked over and joined the hug. “Ranma’s right, Nodoka — Mother,” she said. “Whatever mistakes you made, you’ve done your best to make up for them.”

Nodoka nodded wordlessly, freeing an arm from around Ranma to circle Nabiki as tears of gratitude flowed, and the three stood/floated in the mutual embrace for a few luxurious minutes, until suddenly Nabiki giggled and stepped back. When the other two broke apart to look at her curiously, she said, “Ranma, the new wings are neat, but they make group hugs a little awkward. Why don’t you get rid of them?”

“Uh, how?” the redhead asked.

Nabiki shrugged. “How would I know? Maybe if you just think about how you were, just try to force them away?”

Ranma closed her eyes and concentrated. For a minute nothing happened, then suddenly the wings seemed to shiver, then shrink into the nature spirit’s shoulder blades. “Wow, did that feel weird,” she said, opening her eyes with a shiver and reaching around to make sure they were gone. She closed her eyes again, and the wings sprang back out, then once again shrank away to nothing. “Okay, I think I got that one down,” she said with a happy grin.

Nabiki was also smiling broadly. “Great! While you’re at it, try changing into your male form again.”

Ranma nodded eagerly. She again closed her eyes, but long minutes passed without a hint a change, and finally the disappointed girl opened her eyes as her shoulders slumped. “Nothin’!” she growled.

Nabiki stepped over and laid a hand on her shoulder. “It was worth a try. Don’t worry about it, it’ll come.”

Her fiancé’s head came up at that, surprised by the concern shading into fear coming from the middle Tendo. “Nabs, what’s wrong?” she asked.

“ ‘Nabs’,” Nabiki repeated. “I’m not sure how I feel about that pet name, but I suppose something of the sort’s inevitable.” Ignoring Ranma’s continued worried gaze, she said, “Later, what do we do about Genma?”

/\

Heads turned as Nodoka walked back into the family room, followed by Nabiki and the unseen by most Ranma (though Kasumi’s eyebrows rose at the sight of the once again wingless succubus). As the former Saotome matriarch resumed her place at the table, she looked around at an apparently calm Kasumi; an Akane almost bouncing from curiosity; and a tearful, frantic Soun almost wringing his hands; before expressionlessly facing her former husband. To her surprise, Genma was calm, sitting erect, hands on his thighs, awaiting her verdict.

“Genma, when your victims and the police began arriving on my doorstep, I sought and acquired a divorce and sole parental rights to my son on grounds of abandonment,” she informed him in an icy tone. “When I came here today, I was prepared to finally give up the name of a man I had come to loath, take back my long-lost son into my life as more than an occasional visitor, break the Saotome honor blade, and order you to never darken our doorway again.” Genma’s shoulders slumped and tears began to run down his cheeks, but she continued, “However, having heard why you tortured your son and abandoned me, why you returned to your master’s ways, I find that some small part of the fault is mine. So, a slight change of plans.

“First, while you may continue training my son; that training will take place here at the Tendo dojo, and only here unless I give my express permission. Second, I will have the final say in any training techniques you wish to teach. Third, training is the _only_ part of my son’s life over which you will have any say — everything else is for me, Ranma, and his fiancée to decide. Fourth, you and Ranma will no longer share a room — Ranma will share Nabiki’s room and bed from now on. Fifth, you will find a job as soon as possible, to contribute to the costs of maintaining this household and pay the continuing restitution for your crimes. Finally,” turning to Kasumi, Nodoka asked, “Kasumi, would you mind if I moved in to keep an eye on my former husband?”

Kasumi shook her head, a smile lighting up her face. “Of course not! We would be honored to have you here — Mother.”

Nodoka’s expression softened and two fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. “No, Kasumi you honor me more than a stupid old woman deserves. I am grateful for your generosity.”

Turning back to Genma even as the eldest Tendo sister vehemently denied her self-characterization, Nodoka’s expression again hardened. “Well, Genma, do you accept my terms?”

Genma nodded hurriedly. “Of course, No — Nodoka-san. You are more than generous, thank you. I will start looking for work immediately.”

“Don’t thank me, it was Ranma that wanted you to stay,” Nodoka ground out, then glanced over at her now-shivering daughter floating to the side between her parents. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and forced the anger away before reopening her eyes and smiling reassuringly at the redhead. When Ranma’s shivering eased and she smiled back, Nodoka looked over at Kasumi. “So, Kasumi, where will I be sleeping?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title comes from the song, "The High Cost of Living" by Jamey Johnson. The most relevant part of lyrics are:
> 
> My whole life went through my head.  
> Layin' in that motel bed.  
> Watchin' as the cops kicked in the door.  
> I had a job and a piece of land.  
> My sweet wife was my best friend,  
> but I traded that for cocaine and a whore.  
> With my newfound sobriety,  
> I've got the time to sit and think...  
> Of all the things I had,  
> and threw away.  
> This prison is much colder than,  
> the one that I was locked up in...  
> Just yesterday.


End file.
